m 


COTTON  IS  KING: 


CULTURE  OF  COTTON,  AND  ITS  RELATION  TO 


^giitutow,  Panufectuws  min  Commtra; 


Tb  tin  ftw  Cobred  People  of  the  United  Stateg,  and  to  these  who  hold  that 

^  Slavery  is  in  itself  sinful 


BY  DAVID  CHRISTY. 


SECOND    EDITION,    EEVISED   AND    ENLAEGED. 


l^EW  YORK: 
DERBY    &    JACKSON". 

CINCINNATI H.     W.     DERBY     &     CO. 

1S56. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1856,  by 

DAVID    CHRISTY, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  Southern 

District  of  Ohio. 


E 


PREFACE  TO  THE  SECOND  EDITION, 


**  Cotton  is  King"  has  been  received,  gener- 
ally, with  much  favor  by  the  public.  The  Author's 
name  having  been  withheld,  the  book  was  left  to 
stand  or  fall  upon  its  own  merits.  The  first  edition 
has  been  sold  without  any  special  effort  on  the  part 
of  the  publishers.  As  they  did  not  risk  the  cost  of 
stereotyping,  the  work  has  been  left  open  for  revision 
and  enlargement.  No  change  in  the  matter  of  the 
first  edition  has  been  made,  except  a  few  verbal 
alterations  and  the  addition  of  some  qualifying 
phrases.  Two  short  paragraphs  only  have  been 
omitted,  so  as  to  leave  the  public  documents  and 
Abolitionists,  only,  to  testify  as  to  the  moral  con- 
dition of  the  free  colored  people.  The  matter  added 
to  the  present  volume  equals  nearly  one-fourth  of  the 
work.  It  relates  mainly  to  two  points:  First,  The 
condition  of  the  free  colored  people;  Second,  The 
economical  and  political  relations  of  slavery.     The 

iii 


IV  PREFACE   TO    THE   SECOND   EDITION. 

facts  given,  it  is  believed,  will  completely  fortify  all 
the  positions  of  the  Author,  on  these  questions,  so 
far  as  his  views  have  been  assailed. 

The  field  of  investioation  embraced  in  the  book 

o 

is  a  broad  one,  and  the  sources  of  information  from 
which  its  facts  are  derived  are  accessible  to  but  few. 
It  is  not  surprising,  then,  that  strangers  to  these 
facts,  on  first  seeing  them  arranged  in  their  philo- 
sophical relations  and  logical  connection,  should  be 
startled  at  their  import,  and  misconceive  the  object 
and  motives  of  the  Author. 

For  example:  One  reviewer,  in  noticing  the  first 
edition,  asserts  that  the  writer  "endeavors  to  prove 
that  slavery  is  a  great  blessing  in  its  relations  to 
agriculture,  manufactures  and  commerce."  The 
candid  reader  will  be  unable  to  find  anything,  in  the 
pages  of  the  work,  to  justify  such  an  assertion. 
The  author  has  proved  that  the  products  of  slave 
labor  are  in  such  universal  demand,  through  the 
channels  named  by  the  reviewer,  that  it  is  impracti- 
cable, in  the  existing  condition  of  the  world,  to  over- 
throw the  system.  But  in  no  instance  is  this  state 
of  things  called  a  ** blessing.'*  Why,  then,  should 
such  a  charge  be  made?  Does  the  man  who  demon- 
strates that  epidemics  are  the  basis  of  the  prosperity 


PREFACE   TO   THE    SECOND   EDmON.  V 

of  the  medical  profession,  necessarily  hold  that  epi- 
demics are  great  blessings? 

Another  charges,  that  the  whole  work  is  based 
on  a  fallacy,  and  that  all  its  arguments,  therefore, 
are  unsound.  The  fallacy  of  the  book,  it  is  explained, 
consists  in  making  cotton  and  slavery  indivisible,  and 
teaching  that  cotton  can  not  be  cultivated  except  by 
slave  labor;  whereas,  in  the  opinion  of  the  objector, 
that  staple  can  be  grown  by  free  labor.  Here,  again, 
the  Author  is  misunderstood.  He  only  teaches  what 
is  true  beyond  all  question:  not  that  free  labor  is 
incapable  of  producing  cotton,  but  that  it  does  not 
produce  it  so  as  to  affect  the  interests  of  slave  labor; 
and  that  the  American  Planter,  therefore,  still  finds 
himself  in  the  possession  of  the  monopoly  of  the 
market  for  cotton,  and  unable  to  meet  the  demand 
made  upon  him  for  that  staple,  except  by  a  vast 
enlargement  of  its  cultivation,  requiring  the  employ- 
ment of  an  increased  amount  of  labor  in  its  pro- 
duction. 

Another  says:  "  The  real  object  of  the  work  is 
an  apology  for  American  slavery.  Professing  to 
repudiate  extremes,  the  Author  pleads  the  necessity 
for  the  present  continuance  of  slavery,  founded  on 
economical,    political,    and   moral    considerations.** 


VI  PKEFACE   TO    THE   SECOND   EDITION. 

The  dullest  reader  cau  not  fail  to  perceive  that  the 
work  contains  not  one  word  of  apology  for  the  Insti- 
tution of  Slavery,  nor  the  slightest  wish  for  its  con- 
tinuance. In  writing  the  book,  the  Author  had  in 
view  far  other  objects  than  these.  It  is  shown  that 
King  Cotton  sits  entrenched  in  a  position  impreg- 
nable to  all  the  forces  marshaled  against  him;  and 
that  he  not  only  successfully  resists  the  assaults  of 
his  enemies,  but  makes  them  contributors  to  the 
support  of  his  throne.  But  the  volume  nowhere 
contains  a  single  expression  of  approbation  of  this 
condition  of  things,  or  a  desire  that  it  should  be 
continued.  It  only  shows  that,  as  things  now  are, 
we  can  not  shake  off  the  incubus  if  we  would. 
Were  some  one  to  prove  that  the  attacks  upon  King- 
Alcohol,  by  our  legislatures,  have  not  lessened  the 
consumption  of  whisky,  and  charge  the  Temperance 
men  with  a  want  of  wisdom  and  foresio^ht  in  framincr 
their  laws,  would  that  make  him  an  apologist  for 
Intemperance,  or  indicate  that  he  was  desirous  of 
continuing  the  sale  of  intoxicating  drinks?  Or 
were  he  to  declare  that  quack  physicians  have 
not  sufficient  skill  to  arrest  the  cholera,  would 
that  justify  the  charge  that  he  was  favorable  to  its 
extension? 


PREFACE   TO    THE   SECOND   EDITION.  Vll 

Another  charges  the  Author  with  ignorance  of 
the  recent  progress  making  in  the  culture  of  cotton, 
by  free  labor,  in  India  and  Algeria;  and  congratu- 
lates his  readers  that,  **on  our  side  of  the  ocean,  the 
prospects  of  free  soil  and  free  labor,  and  of  free 
cotton  as  one  of  the  products  of  free  soil  and  free 
labor,  were  never  so  fair  as  now."  This  is  a  pretty- 
fair  example  of  one's  **  whistling  to  keep  his  courage 
up,"  while  passing,  in  the  dark,  through  woods 
where  he  thinks  ghosts  are  lurking  on  either  side. 
Algeria  has  done  nothing,  yet,  to  encourage  the  hope 
that  American  slavery  will  be  lessened  in  value  by 
the  cultivation  of  cotton  in  Africa.  The  British 
custom  house  reports,  as  late  as  September,  1855, 
instead  of  showing  any  increase  of  imports  of  cotton 
from  India,  it  will  be  seen,  exhibit  a  great  falling 
off  in  its  supplies;  and,  in  the  opinion  of  the  best 
authorities,  extinguishes  the  hope  of  arresting  the 
progress  of  American  slavery  by  any  efforts  made  to 
render  Asiatic  free  labor  more  effective.  As  to  the 
prospects  on  this  side  of  the  ocean,  a  glance  at  the 
map  will  show,  that  the  chances  of  growing  cotton 
in  Kansas  are  just  as  good,  and  only  as  good,  as  in 
Illinois  and  Missouri,  from  whence  not  a  pound  is 
ever  exported.     Texas   was  careful  to  appropriate 


Vlll  PREFACE   TO    THE    SECOND   EDiriON. 

nearly  all  the  cotton  lands  acquired  from  Mexico, 
which  lie  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Rocky  Mount- 
ains; and,  by  that  act,  all  such  lands,  mainly,  hare 
been  secured  to  slavery.  Where,  then,  is  free  labor 
to  operate,  even  were  it  ready  for  the  task? 

Another  alleges  that  the  book  is  *'a  weak  effort 
to  slander  the  people  of  color.''  This  is  a  charge 
that  could  have  come  only  from  a  careless  reader. 
The  whole  testimony,  embraced  in  the  first  edition, 
nearly,  as  to  the  economical  failure  of  West  India 
Emancipation,  and  the  moral  degradation  of  the  free 
colored  people,  generally,  is  quoted  from  Abolition 
authorities,  as  is  expressly  stated;  not  to  slander  the 
people  of  color,  but  to  show  them  what  the  world  is 
to  think  of  them,  on  the  testimony  of  their  particular 
friends  and  self-constituted  guardians. 

Another  objects  to  what  is  said  of  those  who 
hold  the  opinion  that  slavery  is  malum  in  se,  and 
who  yet  continue  to  purchase  and  use  its  products. 
On  this  point  it  is  only  necessary  to  say,  that  the 
logic  of  the  book  has  not  been  affected  by  the 
sophistry  employed  against  it;  and  that  if  those  who 
hold  the  per  se  doctrine,  and  continue  to  use  slave 
labor  products,  dislike  the  charge  of  being  participes 
criminis  with  robbers,  they  must  classify  slavery  in 


PREFACE   TO   THE   SECOND   EDITION.  IX 

some  other  mode  than  that  in  which  they  have 
placed  it  in  their  creeds.  For,  if  they  are  not  par- 
takers with  thieves,  then  slavery  is  not  a  system  of 
robbery;  but  if  slavery  be  a  system  of  robbery,  as 
they  maintain,  then,  on  their  own  principles,  they 
are  as  much  partakers  with  thieves  as  any  others 
who  deal  in  stolen  property. 

The  severest  criticism  on  the  book,  however, 
comes  from  one  who  charges  the  Author  with  a 
"disposition  to  mislead,  or  an  ignorance  which  is 
inexcusable,"  in  the  use  of  the  statistics  of  crime, 
having  reference  to  the  free  colored  people,  from 
1820  to  1827.  The  object  of  the  Author,  in  using 
the  statistics  referred  to,  was  only  to  show  the 
reasons  why  the  scheme  of  Colonization  was  then 
accepted,  by  the  American  public,  as  a  means  of 
relief  to  the  colored  population,  and  not  to  drag  out 
these  sorrowful  facts  to  the  disparagement  of  those 
now  living.  But  the  reviewer,  suspicious  of  every 
one  who  does  not  adopt  his  Abolition  notions,  sus- 
pects the  Author  of  improper  motives,  and  asks: 
*'Why  go  so  far  back,  if  our  Author  wished  to  treat 
the  subject  fairly?"  Well,  the  statistics  on  this 
dismal  topic  have  been  brought  up  to  the  latest 
date  practicable,  and  the  Author  now  leaves  it  to 


X  PREFACE   TO   THE    SECOND   EDITION. 

the  colored  people  themselves  to  say,  whether  they 
have  gained  anything  by  the  reviewer's  zeal  in  their 
behalf.  He  will  learn  one  lesson  at  least,  we  hope, 
from  the  result:  that  a  writer  can  use  his  pen  with 
greater  safety  to  his  reputation,  when  he  knows 
something  about  the  subject  he  discusses. 

But  this  reviewer,  warming  in  his  zeal,  under- 
takes to  philosophise,  and  says,  that  the  evils  existing 
among  the  free  colored  people,  will  be  found  in 
exact  proportion  to  th€f  slowness  of  emancipation; 
and  complains  that  New  Jersey  was  taken  as  the 
standard,  in  this  respect,  instead  of  Massachusetts, 
where,  he  asserts,  "all  the  negroes  in  the  Common- 
wealth, were,  by  the  new  Constitution,  liberated  in 
a  day,  and  none  of  the  ill  consequences  objected 
followed,  either  to  the  Commonwealth  or  to  individ- 
uals." The  reviewer  is  referred  to  the  facts,  in  the 
present  edition,  where  he  will  find,  that  the  amount 
of  crime,  at  the  date  to  which  he  refers,  was  six 
times  greater  among  the  colored  people  of  Massachu- 
setts, in  proportion  to  their  numbers,  than  among 
those  of  New  Jersey.  The  next  time  he  undertakes 
to  review  King  Cotton,  it  will  be  best  for  him  not 
to  rely  upon  his  imagination,  but  to  look  at  the 
facts.     He  should  be  able  at  least,  when  quoting  a 


PREFACE    TO    THE    SECOND    EDITION.  XI 

writer,  to  discriminate  between  evils  resulting  from 
insurrections,  and  evils  growing  out  of  common 
immoralities.  Experience  has  taught,  that  it  is 
unsafe,  when  calculating  the  results  of  the  means 
of  elevation  employed,  to  reason  from  a  civilized  to 
a  half  civilized  race  of  men. 

The  last  point  that  needs  attention,  is  the  charge 
that  the  Author  is  a  slaveholder,  and  governed  by 
mercenary  motives.  To  break  the  force  of  any  such 
objection  to  the  work,  and  relieve  it  from  prejudices 
thus  created,  the  veil  is  lifted,  and  the  Author's 
name  is  placed  upon  the  title  page. 

The  facts  and  statistics  used  in  the  first  edition, 
were  brought  down  to  the  close  of  1854,  mainly, 
and  the  arguments  founded  upon  the  then  existing 
state  of  things.  The  year  1853  was  taken  as  best 
indicating  the  relations  of  our  Planters  and  Farmers 
to  the  manufactures  and  commerce  of  the  country 
and  the  world ;  because  the  exports  and  imports  of 
that  year  were  nearer  an  average  of  the  commercial 
operations  of  the  country  than  the  extraordinary 
year  which  followed ;  and  because  the  Author  had 
nearly  finished  his  labors  before  the  results  of  1854 
had  been  ascertained.  In  preparing  the  second 
edition  for  the  press,  many  additional  facts,  of  a 


Xll  PREFACE   TO   THE   SECOND   EDITION. 

more  recent  date,  have  been  introduced :  all  of 
which  tend  to  prove  the  general  accuracy  of  the 
Author's  conclusions,  as  expressed  in  the  first 
edition. 

Tables  IV  and  V,  added  to  the  present  edition, 
embrace  some  very  curious  and  instructive  statistics, 
in  relation  to  the  increase  and  decrease  of  the  free 
colored  people,  in  certain  sections,  and  the  influence 
they  appear  to  exert  on  public  sentiment. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  FIEST  EDITION. 


In  the  preparation  of  the  following  pages,  the 
Author  has  aimed  at  clearness  of  statement,  rather 
than  elegance  of  diction.  He  sets  up  no  claim  to 
literary  distinction;  and  even  if  he  did,  every  man 
of  classical  taste  knows,  that  a  work,  aboundingf  in 
facts  and  statistics,  affords  little  opportunity  for  any 
display  of  literary  ability. 

The  greatest  care  has  been  taken,  by  the  Author, 
to  secure  perfect  accuracy  in  the  statistical  informa- 
tion supplied,  and  in  all  the  facts  stated. 

The  authorities  consulted  are  Brande's  Diction- 
ary of  Science,  Literature  and  Art;  Porter's  Prog- 
ress of  the  British  Nation;  McCullough's  Commer- 
cial Dictionary;  Encyclopoedia  Americana;  London 
Economist;  De  Bow's  Review;  Patent  OflBce  Reports; 
Congressional  Reports  on  Commerce  and  Navigation; 
Abstract  of  the  Census  Reports,  1850;  and  Com- 
pendium of  the  Census  Reports.     The  extracts  from 

xiii 


XIV  PREFACE    TO    THE    FIRST   EDITION. 

the  Debates  in  Congress,  on  the  Tariff  Question,  are 
copied  from  the  National  Intelligencer. 

The  tabular  statements  appended,  bring  together 
the  principal  facts,  belonging  to  the  questions  ex- 
amined, in  such  a  manner  that  their  relations  to 
each  other  can  be  seen  at  a  glance. 

The  first  of  these  Tables,  shows  the  date  of  the 
origin  of  Cotton  Manufactories  in  England,  and  the 
amount  of  Cotton  annually  consumed,  down  to  1853; 
the  origin  and  amount  of  the  exports  of  Cotton  from 
the  United  States  to  Europe;  the  sources  of  Eng- 
land's supplies  of  Cotton,  from  countries  other  than 
the  United  States;  the  dates  of  the  discoveries  which 
have  promoted  the  production  and  manufacture  of 
Cotton;  the  commencement  of  the  movements  made 
to  meliorate  the  condition  of  the  African  race;  and 
the  occurrence  of  events  that  have  increased  the 
value  of  slavery,  and  led  to  its  extension. 

The  second  and  third  of  the  Tables,  relate  to  the 
exports  and  imports  of  the  United  States;  and 
illustrate  the  relations  sustained  by  slavery,  to  the 
other  industrial  interests  and  the  commerce  of  the 
country. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I. 

Introduction — Character  of  the  Slavery  controversy  in 
the  United  States — In  Great  Britain — Its  influence  in  modi- 
fying the  policy  of  Anti-Slavery  men  in  America — Course  of 
the  Churches — Political  parties — Result,  Cotton  is  King — 
Necessity  of  reviewing  the  policy  in  relation  to  the  African 
race — Topics  embraced  in  the  discussion,    -        -    Page  25 

CHAPTER  II. 

Emancipation  in  the  United  States  begun — First  Abolition 
Society  organized — Progress  of  Emancipation — First  Cotton 
mill — Exclusion  of  Slavery  from  IS".  W.  Temtory — Elements 
of  Slavery  expansion — Cotton  Gin  invented — Suppression  of 
the  Slave  Trade — Cotton  Manufactures  commenced  in  Bos- 
ton— Franklin's  Appeal — Condition  of  the  Free  Colored 
People — Boston  Prison-Discipline  Society — Darkening  Pros- 
pects of  the  Colored  People — Southern  view  of  Emancipa- 
tion— Dismal  condition  of  Africa,        -        -        -        -      30 

CHAPTER   III. 

Organization  of  the  American  Colonization  Society — Its 
necessity,  objects,  and  policy  —  Public  sentiment  in  its 
favor — Opposition  developes    itself — Wm.   Loyd    Garrison, 

XV 


XVI  CONTENTS. 

James  G.  Birney,  Gerritt  Smith— Effects  of  opposition — 
Stimulants  to  Slavery — Exports  of  Cotton — England  sus- 
taining American  Slavery — Failure  of  the  Niger  Expe- 
dition— Strength  of  Slaveiy — Political  action — Its  failure — 
Its  fruits, 48 

CHAPTER   lY. 

Present  condition  of  Slavery — Not  an  isolated  system — 
Its  relations  to  other  industrial  interests — To  manufactures, 
commerce,  trade,  human  comfort — Its  benevolent  aspect — 
The  reverse  picture — England's  attempted  monopoly  of 
Manufactures — Her  dependence  on  American  Planters — Cot- 
ton Planters  attempt  to  monopolize  Cotton  markets — Fusion 
of  these  parties — Free  Trade  essential  to  their  success — Influ- 
ence on  agriculture,  mechanics — Exports  of  Cotton,  Tobacco, 
etc. — Increased  production  of  Provisions — Their  extent — > 
New  markets  needed,  -_.--.      62 

CHAPTER   Y. 

Foresight  of  Great  Britain — Hon.  George  Thompson's 
predictions — Their  failure — England's  dependence  on  Slave 
labor — Blackwood's  Magazine — London  Economist — McCul- 
lough — Her  exports  of  cotton  goods — Neglect  to  improve  the 
proper  moment  for  Emancipation — Admission  of  Gerritt 
Smith — Cotton,  its  exports,  its  value,  extent  of  crop,  and  cost 
of  our  Cotton  fabrics — Provisions,  their  value,  their  export, 
their  consumption — Groceries,  source  of  their  supplies,  cost 
of  amount  consumed — Our  total  indebtedness  to  Slave 
labor — ^How  far  Free  labor  sustains  Slave  labor,  -         -      71 

CHAPTER   YI. 

Economical  relations  of  Slavery  further  considered — Sys- 
tem unprofitable  in  grain  growing,  but  profitable  in  culture 


CONTENTS.  XVll 

of  Cotton — Antagonism  of  Farmer  and  Planter — "  Protec- 
tion" and  "  Free  Trade  "  controversy — Congressional  Debates 
on  the  subject — Mr.  Clay — Position  of  the  South — * '  Free 
Trade,"  considered  indispensable  to  its  prosperity,      -      82 

CHAPTER   VII. 

Tariff  controversy  continued — Mr.  Hayne — Mr.  Carter — 
Mr.  Govan — Mr.  Martindale — Mr.  Buchanan — Sugar  Planters 
invoked  to  aid  Free  Trade — The  "West  also  invoked — Its 
pecuniary  embarrassments  for  want  of  markets — Henry 
Baldwin — Remarks  on  the  views  of  the  parties — State  of 
the  world — Dread  of  the  Protective  policy  by  the  Planters — 
Their  schemes  to  avert  its  consequences,  and  promote  Free 
Trade, 96 

CHAPTER   Yin. 

Character  of  the  Tariff  controversy — Pecuniary  condition 
of  the  people — Efforts  to  enlist  the  West  in  the  interest  of  the 
South— Mr.  McDuffie— Mr.  Hamilton— Mr.  Rankin— Mr.  Gar- 
nett — Mr.  Cuthbert — The  West  still  shut  out  from  market — 
Mr.  Wickliffe— Mr.  Benton— Tariff  of  1828  obnoxious  to  the 
South — Georgia  Resolutious — Mr.  Hamilton — Argument  to 
Sugar  Planters, Ill 

CHAPTER    IX. 
Tariff  controversy  continued — Tariff  of  1832 — The  cri- 
sis— Secession  threatened — Compromise  finally  adopted — De- 
bates— Mr.  Hayne — Mr.  McDuffie — Mr.  Clay — Adjustment  of 
the  subject,  .-.-^...     125 

CHAPTER   X. 

Results  of  the  contest  on  Protection  and  Free  Trade — 
More  or  less  favorable  to  all — Increased  consumption  of 
2 


XVlll  CONTENTS. 

Cotton  at  home — Capital  invested  in  Cotton  and  Woollen 
factories — Markets  thus  afforded  to  the  Fai-mer — South  suc- 
cessful in  securing  the  monopoly  of  the  Cotton  markets — 
Failure  of  Cotton  cultivation  in  other  countries — Diminished 
prices  destroyed  Household  Manufacturing — Increasing  de- 
mand for  Cotton — Strange  Providences — First  efforts  to  extend 
Slavery — Indian  lands  acquired — l^o  danger  of  over-produc- 
tion— Abolition  movements  served  to  unite  the  South — Anex- 
ation  of  temtory  thought  essential  to  its  security — Increase 
of  Provisions  necessary  to  its  success — Temperance  cause 
favorable  to  this  result — The  West  ready  to  supply  the 
Planters — ^It  is  greatly  stimulated  to  effort  by  Southern 
markets — Tripartite  Alliance  of  Western  Farmers,  Southeni 
Planters,  and  English  Manufacturers — The  East  compet- 
ing— The  West  has  a  choice  of  markets — Slavery  extension 
necessary  to  Western  progress — Increased  price  of  Pro- 
visions— More  grain  growing  needed — ]S'ebraska  and  Kansas 
needed  to  raise  food — The  Planters  stimulated  by  increasing 
demand  for  Cotton — Aspect  of  the  Provision  question — Cali- 
fornia gold  changed  the  expected  results  of  legislation — 
Reciprocity  Treaty  favorable  to  Planters — Extended  cultiva- 
tion of  Provisions  in  the  Far  West  essential  to  Planters — 
Present  aspect  of  the  Cotton  question  favorable  to  Planters — 
London  Economist's  statistics  and  remarks — Our  Planters 
must  extend  the  culture  of  Cotton  to  prevent  its  increased 
growth  elsewhere, 136 

CHAPTER    XI. 

Rationale  of  the  Kansas-I^ebraska  movement — Western 
agriculturists  merely  feeders  of  Slaves — Diy  goods  and  gro- 
ceries nearly  all  of  Slave  labor  origin — ^Value  of  Imports — 
How  paid  for — Planters  pay  for  more  than  three-fourths — 
Slavery  intermediate  between  Commerce  and  Agriculture — 
Slavery  not  self-sustaining — Supplies  from  the  North  essential 


CONTENTS.  XIX 

to  its  success — Proximate  exteut  of  these  supplies — Slavery 
the  central  power  of  all  the  industrial  interests  depending  on 
Manufactures  and  Commerce — Abolitionists  contributing  to 
this  result — Protection  prostrate — Free  Trade  dominant — 
The  South  triumpliant — Country  ambitious  of  ten-itorial 
aggrandisement — The  world's  peace  disturbed — our  policy- 
needs  modifying  to  meet  contingencies — Defeat  of  Mr.  Clay — 
War  with  Mexico — Results  unfavorable  to  renewal  of  Pro- 
tective policy — Dominant  political  party  at  the  ;N"orth  gives 
its  adhesion  to  Free  Trade — Leading  Abolition  paper  does 
the  same — Ditches  on  the  wrong  side  of  breastworks — ^In- 
consistency— Free  Trade  the  main  element  in  extending 
Slavery — Abolition  United  States  Senators'  voting  with  the 
South — Xorth  thus  shorn  of  its  power — Home  Market  sup- 
plied by  Slavery — People  acquiesce — Despotism  and  Free- 
dom— Pi-eseiwation  of  the  Union  paramount — Colored  people 
must  wait  a  little — Slavery  triumphant — People  at  large 
powerless — Necessity  of  severing  the  Slavery  question  from 
politics — Colonization  the  only  hope — Abolitionism  pros- 
trate— Admissions  on  this  point,  by  Parker,  Sumner,  Camp- 
bell— Other  dangers  to  be  averted — Election  of  Speaker 
Banks  a  Free  Trade  triumph — Xeutrality  necessary — Liberia 
the  colored  man's  hope,        ------    156 


CHAPTER    XII. 

Effects  of  opposition  to  Colonization  on  Liberia — ^Its 
effects  on  free  colored  people — Their  social  and  moral  condi- 
tion— Abolition  testimony  on  the  subject — American  Mis- 
sionary Association — Its  failure  in  Canada — Degradation  of 
West  India  free  colored  people — American  and  Foreign 
Anti-Slavery  Society — Its  testimony  on  the  dismal  conditiou 
of  West  India  free  negroes — London  Times  on  same  sub- 
ject— ^Mr.  Bigelow  on  same  subject — Effect  of  results  in 


XX  CONTENTS. 

West  Indies  on  Emancipation — Opinion  of  Southern  Plant- 
ers— Economical  failure  of  West  India  Emancipation — Ruin- 
ous to  British  Commerce — Similar  results  in  Hayti — Extent 
of  diminution  of  exports  from  West  Indies  resulting  from 
Emancipation — Results  favorable  to  American  Planter — 
Moral  condition  of  Hayti — Necessity  of  education  to  render 
freedom  of  value — Franklin's  opinion  confirmed — Coloniza- 
tion essential  to  promote  Emancipation,        -         -         -     176 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

Moral  condition  of  the  free  colored  people  in  United 
States — What  have  they  gained  by  refusing  to  accept  Colo- 
nization?— Abolition  testimony  on  the  subject  —  Gerritt 
Smith — New  York  Tribune — Their  moral  condition  as  indi- 
cated by  proportions  in  Penitentiaries — Census  Reports — 
Native  -wliites,  foreign  born,  and  free  colored,  in  Peniten- 
tiaries— But  little  improvement  in  Massachusetts  in  seventy 
years — Contrasts  of  Ohio  with  New  England — Antagonism 
of  Abolitionism  to  free  negroes, 200 


CHAPTER    Xiy. 

Disappointment  of  English  and  American  Abolitionists — 
Their  failure  attributed  to  the  inherent  evils  of  Slaveiy — 
Their  want  of  discrimination — The  difi^erences  in  the  sys- 
tem in  the  British  Colonies  and  in  the  United  States — Free 
colored  people  of  United  States  vastly  in  advance  of  all 
oihere — Democratic  Review  on  African  civilization — Vexa- 
tion of  Abolitionists  at  their  failure — Their  apology  not  to 
be  accepted — Liberia  attests  its  falsity — The  barrier  to  the 
colored  man's  elevation  removable  only  by  Colonization — 
Colored  men  begin  to  see  it — Chambers,  of  Edinburgh — His 


CONTENTS.  XXI 

testimony  on  the  crushing  effects  of  Xew  England's  treat- 
ment of  colored  people — Charges  Abolitionists  with  insin- 
cerity— Approves  Colonization, 210 

CHAPTER   XV. 

Failure  of  free  colored  people  in  attaining  an  equality 
with  the  whites — Their  failure  also  in  checking  Slavery — 
Have  they  not  aided  in  its  extension?  Yes — Facts  in  proof 
of  this  view — Abolitionists  bad  philosophers — Colored  men 
tired  of  their  policy — Jfo  field  for  their  elevation  but  Li- 
beria— ^Its  means  of  education  and  moral  improvement,     227 

CHAPTER   XYI. 

Moral  relations  of  Slavery — Relations  of  the  consumer  of 
Slave  labor  products  to  the  system — Grand  error  of  all  Anti- 
Slaveiy  effort — Law  oi pariiceps  criminis — Daniel  O'Counell — 
Malum  in  se  doctrine — Inconsistency  of  those  who  hold  it — 
English  Emancipationists — Their  commercial  argument — 
Differences  between  the  position  of  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States — Preaching  versus  practice  by  Abolitionists — 
Cause  of  tlieir  want  of  influence  over  the  Slaveholder — N'e- 
cessity  of  examining  the  question — Each  man  to  be  judged 
by  his  own  standard — Classification  of  opinions  in  the  United 
States,  in  regard  to  the  morality  of  Slaveiy — Three  views — 
A  case  in  illustration — Apology  of  per  se  men  for  using 
Slave  grown  products  insufficient — Law  relating  to  "  con- 
fusion of  goods  " — Per  se  men  particeps  criminis  with  Slave- 
holders— Taking  Slave  grown  products  under  protest  ab- 
S'.rd — "World's  Christian  Evangelical  Alliance — Amount  of 
Slave  labor  Cotton  in  England  at  that  moment — Pharisaical 
conduct — The  Scotchman  taking  his  wife  under  protest — 
Anecdote — American  Cotton  more  acceptable  to  Englishmen 
than   Republican    principles — Secret  of  England's    policy 


XXll  CONTENTS. 

toward  American  Slavery — The  case  of  robbery  again  cited, 
and  the  English  Satirized—  A  Contrast — Causes  of  the  want 
of  moral  power  of  Abolitionists — Slaveholders  no  cause  to 
cringe — Other  results — Effect  of  the  adoption  of  the  per  se 
doctrine  by  ecclesiastical  bodies — Slaves  thus  left  in  all  their 
moral  destitution — Inconsistency  of  per  se  men  denouncing 
others — "What  the  Bible  says  of  similar  conduct,     -       -    235 

CHAPTER   XVII. 

Conclusion — Causes  checking  Emancipation,  and  pro- 
moting Slavery — Remedies  left  to  be  devised  by  others — 
Monopoly  of  Cotton  markets  renders  Slaveiy  impregnable — 
Ko  change  practicable  until  free  blacks  equal  whites  in 
entei-prise — King  Cotton  compelled  to  sustain  his  throne  by 
Slavery — Efforts  of  Great  Britain  to  break  allegiance  to  him 
fruitless — Her  free  negroes  not  reliable — Those  of  the  United 
States  equally  unproductive — King  Cotton  a  profound  states- 
man— -Able  to  rule  all  classes  into  his  service — Quadruple 
Alliance  between  Agriculturists,  Planters,  Manufacturers, 
Abolitionists — Dubious  position  of  Free  Trade  Abolition 
politicians — They  are  the  true  "  doughfaces  " — Slavery  sole 
reliance  of  King  Cotton — His  policy  is  to  keep  Free  Trade 
politicians  in  office — Kansas  and  N"ebraska  important  as 
Provision  grounds — Political  ascendency  necessaiy  to  the 
South,  to  prevent  interference  with  its  system — Slaveiy 
dominant,  and  can  only  be  removed  with  assent  of  Slave- 
holders— Statesmen  of  broad  views  needed — Abolitionists  at 
large  deceived  by  political  strategy — Sincerity  of  early  Anti- 
Slavery  men — Repugance  of  the  doctrine  of  Didne  right  of 
Slavery  and  of  Kings — Per  se  doctrine  on  Slavery  plausible, 
but  impracticable — Slavery  a  great,  civil  and  social  evil  the 
more  populai-  and  practical  doctrine — l!^ecessity  of  civil 
government — Despotism  the  necessaiy  consequence  of  igno- 
rance— Free  governments  from  necessity  must  acknowledge 


CONTENTS.  XXlll 

despotic  ones — Elevated  examples — The  banishment  of  igno- 
rance necessary  to  the  overthrow  of  despotism — Slavery  and 
Despotism  identical  in  principle — The  fate  of  the  one  in- 
volved in  that  of  the  other — Moral  elevation  must  precede  civil 
privileges — Education  should  precede  enfranchisement — The 
Bible — True  American  feeling — The  work  begun — The  Bible 
among  the  Slaves — Measures  essential  to  the  redemption  of 
the  African  race, -        -    261 

APPENDIX. 

Statistics. — Tahle  I.  Cotton,  its  influence  on  Commerce, 
Manufactures,  Slaveiy,  Emancipation,  etc.,  from  its  earliest 
use  in  England  to  present  date — Sources  of  its  supplies — 
Dates  of  inventions  increasing  its  use — Dates  of  movements 
designed  to  favor  the  blacks — Dates  of  occurrences  antago- 
nistic to  their  hopes.  Tahle  II.  Tabular  statement  of  Agri- 
cultural products  and  products  of  Animals  exported — Total 
value  of  products  of  Animals  and  Agriculture  raised  in  the 
United  States — ^\^alue  of  amount  left  for  consumption  and 
use — ^^^alue  of  Cotton  exported,  of  total  crop,  and  of  amount 
left  for  consumption — Do.  of  Tobacco,  and  its  products. 
Table  III.  Total  impoi'ts  of  more  important  Groceries  for 
1853 — Re-exports  of  do. — Proportion  from  Slave  labor  coun- 
tries. Table  IV.  Free  colored  and  Slave  population  of  United 
States — Diminution  of  free  colored  population  in  "New  Eng- 
land— Rapid  increase  in  Ohio,  etc.  Table  V.  Influence  of 
colored  population  on  public  sentiment  in  Ohio — Vote  for 
and  against  Abolition  candidate  for  Governor,  by  coun- 
ties.      281 


NOTE. 


The  author  labored  under  great  embarrassment,  often,  in  his 
researches,  in  relation  to  the  relative  extent  of  the  production, 
export,  and  consumption  of  Cotton,  in  the  several  countries  of 
Christendom.  The  statistics  were  attainable  only  through  a 
great  variety  of  channels,  not  readily  accessible.  To  the  reader 
desirous  of  verifying  the  accuracy  of  the  statistics  in  this  work, 
the  task  is  now  rendered  easy,  by  the  recent  action  of  Congress. 
In  compliance  with  a  resolution  of  the  House,  the  Secretary  of 
State  has  furnished  a  Report  which  embraces  all  the  facts  neces- 
sary to  a  clear  comprehension  of  the  whole  question.  The 
dominant  position  held  by  the  Cotton  Planters  of  the  United 
States,  in  relation  to  the  Manufactures  and  Commerce  of  the 
world,  is  clearly  seen  from  this  Report.  It  was  published  in  the 
National  Intelligencer,  June  11,1856,  and  will  doubtless  be  issued 
in  pamphlet  form.  It  is  a  very  valuable  document,  to  those 
desirous  of  studying  the  econamical  relations  of  American 
Slavery  to  the  other  Industrial  Interests  of  the  world.  The 
stereotyping  of  this  work  was  completed  before  the  appearance 
of  the  Report  of  the  Secretary. 


COTTOJ(  IS  KING. 


CHAPTEK   I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

The  controversy  on  Slavery,  in  the  United 
States,  has  been  one  of  an  exciting  and  com- 
plicated character.  The  power  to  emancipate 
existing,  in  fact,  in  the  States  separately  and 
not  in  the  General  Government,  the  efforts  to 
abolish  it,  by  appeals  to  public  opinion,  have 
been  fruitless  except  when  confined  to  single 
States.  In  Great  Britain  the  question  was 
simple.  The  power  to  abolish  slavery  in  her 
West  Indian  colonies  was  vested  in  Parliament. 
To  agitate  the  people  of  England,  and  call  out 
a  fall  expression  of  sentiment,  was  to  control 

Parliament  and  secure  its  abolition.     The  suc- 
3  25 


26  COTTON    IS    KING. 

cess  of  the  English  Abolitionists,  in  the  employ- 
ment of  moral  force,  had  a  powerful  influence 
in  modifying  the  policy  of  American  Anti- 
Slavery  men.  Failing  to  discern  the  difference 
in  the  condition  of  the  two  countries,  they 
attempted  to  create  a  public  sentiment  through- 
out the  United  States  adverse  to  slavery,  in 
the  confident  expectation  of  speedily  over- 
throwing the  institution.  The  issue  taken, 
that  slavery  is  malum  in  se — a  sin  in  itself— 
was  prosecuted  with  all  the  zeal  and  eloquence 
they  could  command.  Churches  adopting  the 
per  se  docti-ine,  inquired  of  their  converts,  not 
whether  they  supported  slavery  by  the  use  of 
its  products,  but  whether  they  believed  the 
institution  itself  sinfal.  Could  public  senti- 
ment be  brought  to  assume  the  proper  ground ; 
could  the  slaveholder  be  convinced  that  the 
world  denounced  him  as  equally  criminal  with 
the  robber  and  murderer ;  then,  it  was  believed, 
he  would  abandon  the  system.  Political  par- 
ties, subsequently  organized,  taught,  that  to 
vote  for  a  slaveholder,  or  a  pro-slavery  man, 
was   sinful,  and   could   not  be   done   without 


COTTON    IS     KING.  27 

violence  to  conscience;  while,  at  the  same 
time,  they  made  no  scruples  of  using  the 
products  of  slave  labor — the  exhorbitant  de- 
mand for  which  was  the  great  bulwark  of  the 
institution.  This  was  a  radical  error.  It  laid 
all  who  adopted  it  open  to  the  charge  of  prac- 
tical inconsistency,  and  left  them  without  any 
moral  power  over  the  consciences  of  others. 
As  long  as  all  used  their  products,  so  long  the 
slaveholders  found  the  jper  se  doctrine  working 
them  no  harm ;  as  long  as  no  provision  was 
made  for  supplying  the  demand  for  tropical 
products  by  fi'ee  labor,  so  long  there  was  no 
risk  in  extending  the  field  of  operations. 
Thus,  the  very  things  necessary  to  the  over- 
throw of  American  slavery,  were  left  undone, 
while  those  essential  to  its  prosperity,  were 
continued  in  the  most  active  operation ;  so  that, 
now,  after  nearly  a  thirty  years'  war,  we  may 
say,  emphatically,  Cotton  is  King,  and  his 
enemies  are  vanquished. 

Under  these  circumstances,  it  is  due  to  the 
age — to  the  friends  of  humanity — ^to  the  cause 
of  liberty — to  the  safety  of  the  Union — that  we 


28  COTTON     IS     KING. 

should  review  the  movements  made  in  behalf 
of  the  African  race,  in  our  country;  so  that 
errors  of  principle  may  be  abandoned ;  mis- 
takes in  policy  corrected ;  incompetent  leaders 
discharged ;  the  free  colored  people  induced  to 
change  their  relations  to  the  industrial  inter- 
ests of  the  world ;  the  rights  of  the  slave,  as 
well  as  the  master  secured ;  and  the  principles 
of  our  Constitution  established  and  revered. 
We  propose,  therefore,  to  examine  this  subject, 
as  it  stands  connected  with  the  history  of  our 
country ;  and  especially  to  afford  some  light  to 
the  free  colored  man,  on  the  true  relations  ho 
sustains  to  African  slavery,  and  to  the  redemp- 
tion of  his  race.  The  facts  and  arguments  we 
propose  to  offer,  will  be  embraced  under  the 
following  heads : 

1.  The  circumstances  under  which  the  Amer- 
ican Colonization  Society  took  its  rise;  the 
relations  it  sustained  to  slavery  and  to  the 
schemes  projected  for  its  abolition;  the  origin 
of  the  elements  which  have  given  to  American 
slavery  its  commercial  value  and  consequent 
powers  of  expansion ;   and  the  futility  of  the 


COTTON     IS     KING.  29 

means  used  to  prevent   the   extension  of  the 
institution. 

2.  The  present  relations  of  American  slavery 
to  the  Industrial  interests  of  our  own  country ; 
to  the  demands  of  Commerce ;  and  to  the 
present  Political  crisis. 

3.  The  industrial,  social,  and  moral  condi- 
tion of  the  free  colored  people  in  the  British 
Colonies  and  in  the  United  States ;  and  the 
new  field  opening  in  Liberia  for  the  display  of 
their  powers. 

4.  The  moral  relations  of  persons  holding 
the  per  se  doctrine,  on  the  subject  of  slavery, 
to  the  purchase  and  consumption  of  slave  labor 
products. 


CHAPTER   II. 


Topic  I.— The  circumstances  under  which  the  Colonization  Society 
took  its  rise;  The  relations  it  sustained  to  Slavery,  and  to  the 
schemes  projected  for  its  abolition  ;  The  origin  of  the  elements 
which  have  given  to  American  Slavery  its  commercial  value  and 
consequent  power  of  expansion;  and  the  futility  of  the  means 
used  to  prevent  the  extension  of  the  Institution. 


Four  years  after  the  Declaration  of  Ameri- 
can Independence,  Pennsylvania  and  Massa- 
chusetts had  emancipated  their  slaves;  and, 
eight  years  thereafter,  Connecticut  and  Rhode 
Island  followed  their  example. 

Three  years  after  the  last  named  event,  an 
Abolition  Society  was  organized  by  the  citi- 
zens of  the  State  of  [N'ew  York,  with  John  Jay 
at  its  head.  Two  years  subsequently,  the 
Pennsylvanians  did  the  same  thing,  electing 
Benjamin  Feanbxin  to  the  presidency  of  their 
association.  The  same  year,  too,  slavery  was 
forever  excluded,  by  act  of  Congi-ess,  from  the 
Northwest  Tenitory.  This  year  is  also  mem- 
orable as  having  witnessed  the  erection  of  the 

30 


COTTON     IS     KING.  31 

first  Cotton  Mill  in  the  United  States,  at  Bev- 
erley, Massachusetts. 

During  the  year  that  the  J^ew  York  Aboli- 
tion Society  was  formed.  Watts,  of  England, 
had  so  far  perfected  the  steam  engine  as  to  use 
it  in  propelling  machinery  for  spinning  cotton ; 
and  the  year  the  Pennsylvania  Society  was 
organized  witnessed  the  invention  of  the  Power 
Loom.  The  Carding  MacJiine  and  the  Spin- 
ning Jenny  having  been  invented  twenty 
years  before,  the  Power  Loom  completed  the 
machinery  necessary  to  the  indefinite  extension 
of  the  manufacture  of  cotton. 

The  work  of  emancipation,  begun  by  the 
four  States  named,  continued  to  progress,  so 
that  in  seventeen  years  fi-om  the  adoption  of 
the  Constitution,  ]^ew  Hampshire,  Vermont, 
Kew  York,  and  Xew  Jersey,  had  also  enacted 
laws  to  fi'ee  themselves  from  the  burden  of 
slavery. 

As  the  work  of  manumission  proceeded, 
the  elements  of  slavery  expansion  were  mul- 
tiplied. "WTien  the  four  States  first  named 
liberated  their  .4aves,  no  regular  exports  of 


32  COTTON    IS     KING. 

cotton  to  Europe  had  yet  commenced ;  and  the 
year  New  Hampshire  set  hers  free,  only 
138,328  lbs.  of  that  article  were  shipped  from 
the  country.  Simultaneously  with  the  action 
of  Vermont,  in  the  year  following,  the  Cotton 
Gin  was  invented,  and  an  unparalleled  im- 
pulse given  to  the  cultivation  of  cotton.  At 
the  same  time,  Louisiana,  with  her  immense 
tenitory,  was  added  to  the  Union,  and  room 
for  the  extension  of  slavery  vastly  increased. 
ISTew  York  lagged  behind  Vermont  for  six 
years,  before  taking  her  first  step  to  free  her 
slaves,  when  she  found  the  exports  of  cotton  to 
England  had  reached  9,500,000  lbs.;  and  Xew 
Jersey,  still  more  tardy,  fell  five  years  behind 
New  York ;  at  which  time  the  exports  of  that 
staple — so  rapidly  had  its  cultivation  pro- 
gressed— were  augmented  to  38,900,000  lbs. 

Four  years  after  the  emancipations  by  States 
had  ceased,  the  slave  trade  was  prohibited; 
but,  as  if  each  movement  for  freedom  must 
have  its  counter-movement  to  stimulate  slavery, 
that  same  year  the  manufacture  of  cotton  goods 
was  commenced  in  Boston.     Two  years  after 


COTTON     IS     KING.  33 

that  event,  the  exports  of  cotton  amounted  to 
93,900,000  lbs.  War  with  Great  Britain,  soon 
afterward,  checked  both  our  exports  and  her 
manufacture  of  the  article ;  but  the  year  1817, 
memorable  in  this  connection,  from  its  being 
the  date  of  the  organization  of  the  Coloniza- 
tion Society,  found  our  exports  augmented  to 
95,660,000  lbs.,  and  her  consumption  enlarged 
to  126,240,000  lbs.  Carding  and  spinning 
machinery  had  now  reached  a  good  degree  of 
perfection,  and  the  power  loom  was  brought 
into  general  use  in  England,  and  was  also  in- 
troduced into  the  United  States.  Steamboats, 
too,  were  coming  into  use,  in  both  countries; 
and  great  activity  prevailed  in  commerce, 
manufactm-es,  and  the  cultivation  of  cotton. 

But  how  fared  it  with  the  free  colored 
people  during  all  this  time  ?  To  obtain  a  true 
answer  to  this  question  we  must  revert  to  the 
days  of  the  Pennsylvania  Abolition  Society. 

"With  freedom  to  the  slave,  came  anxieties 
amons:  the  whites  as  to  the  results,  l^ine 
years   after   Pennsylvania  and   Massachusetts 


34  COTTONISKING. 

had  taken  the  lead  in  the  trial  of  emancipa- 
tion, Franklin  issued  an  Appeal  for  aid  to 
enable  his  Society  to  form  a  plan  for  the  pro- 
motion of  industry,  intelligence,  and  morality 
among  the  free  blacks ;  and  he  zealously  urged 
the  measure,  on  public  attention,  as  essential 
to  their  well-being,  and  indispensable  to  the 
safety  of  society.  He  expressed  his  belief, 
that  such  is  the  debasing  influence  of  slavery 
on  human  nature,  that  its  very  extirpation,  if 
not  performed  with  care,  may  sometimes  open 
a  source  of  serious  evils ;  and  that  so  far  as 
emancipation  should  be  promoted  by  the  So- 
ciety, it  was  a  duty  incumbent  on  its  members 
to  insti'uct,  to  advise,  to  quality  those  restored 
to  freedom,  for  the  exercise  and  enjoyment  of 
civil  liberty. 

How  far  Franklin's  influence  failed  to  pro- 
mote the  humane  object  he  had  in  view,  may 
be  inferred  fr'om  the  fact,  that  forty-seven  years 
after  Pennsylvania  passed  her  Act  of  Emanci- 
pation, and  thirty-eight  after  he  issued  his 
Appeal,  one-third  of  the  convicts  in  her  peni- 
tentiary were  colored   men;   though   the   pre- 


COTTON     IS    KING.  ^ 

ceding  census  showed  that  her  slave  population 
had  almost  wholly  disappeared — there  being 
but  two  Tiundred  and  eleven  of  them  remain- 
ing, while  her  free  colored  people  had  in- 
creased in  number  to  more  than  thirty  thou- 
sand. Few  of  the  other  free  States  were  more 
fortunate,  and  some  of  them  were  even  in  a 
worse  condition — one-half  of  the  convicts  in 
the  penitentiary  of  Kew  Jersey  being  colored 
men. 

But  this  is  not  the  whole  of  the  sad  tale 
that  must  be  recorded.  Gloomy  as  was  the 
picture  of  crime  among  the  colored  people  of 
New  Jersey,  that  of  Massachusetts  was  vastly 
worse.  For  though  the  number  of  her  colored 
convicts,  as  compared  with  the  whites,  was  as 
one  to  six^  yet  the  proportion  of  her  colored 
population  in  the  penitentiary  was  one  out  of 
one  hundred  and  forty ^  while  the  proportion 
in  N'ew  Jersey  was  but  one  out  of  eight  hun- 
dred and  thirty-three.  Thus,  in  Massachu- 
setts, where  emancipation  had,  in  1780,  been 
immediate  and  unconditional,  there  was,  in 
1826,   among  her  colored   people,   about  six 


36  COTTON    IS    KING. 

times  as  much  crime  as  existed  among  those 
of  New  Jersey,  where  gradual  emancipation 
had  not  been  provided  for  until  1804. 

The  moral  condition  of  the  colored  people 
in  the  free  States,  generally,  at  the  period  we 
are  considering,  maybe  understood  more  clearly 
from  the  opinions  expressed,  at  the  time,  by  the 
Boston  Prison  Discipline  Society,  This  be- 
nevolent Association  included  among  its  mem- 
bers. Rev.  Fkancis  Wayland,  Eev.  Justin 
Edwards,  Rev.  Leonard  "Woods,  Rev.  Wil- 
liam Jenks,  Rev.  B.  B.  Wisner,  Rev.  Edward 
Beecher,  Lewis  Tappan,  Esq.,  John  Tappan, 
Esq.,  Hon.  George  Bliss,  and  Hon.  Samuel 
M.  Hopkins. 

Li  the  First  Annual  Report  of  the  Society, 
dated  June  2,  1826,  they  enter  into  an  investi- 
gation "of  the  progress  of  crime,  with  the 
causes  of  it,"  from  which  we  make  the  follow- 
ing extracts: 

"  Degraded  character  of  the  colored 
"population. — The  first  cause,  existing  in 
"  society,  of  the  frequency  and  increase  of 
"  crime     is    the    degraded    character   of   the 


COTTON    IS     KING.  W 

"  colored  population.  The  facts,  which  are 
"  gathered  from  the  Penitentiaries,  to  show 
"  how  great  a  proportion  of  the  convicts  are 
"  colored,  even  in  those  States  where  the 
"  colored  population  is  small,  show,  most 
"  strikingly,  the  connection  between  ignorance 
"  and  vice." 

The  Report  proceeds  to  sustain  its  asser- 
tions by  statistics,  which  prove,  that,  in  Massa- 
chusetts, where  the  free  colored  people  consti- 
tuted one  seventy-fourth  part  of  the  population, 
they  supplied  one-sixth  part  of  the  convicts  in 
her  Penitentiary ;  that  in  Kew  York,  where  the 
free  colored  people  constituted  one  thirty-Jifth 
part  of  the  population,  they  supplied  more  than 
one-fourth  part  of  the  convicts ;  that,  in  Con- 
necticut and  Pennsylvania,  where  the  colored 
people  constituted  one  thirty-fourth  part  of  the 
population,  they  supplied  more  than  one-third 
part  of  the  convicts ;  and  that,  in  N^ew  J  ersey, 
where  the  colored  people  constituted  one-thir- 
teenth part  of  the  population,  they  supplied 
more  than  one-third  part  of  the  convicts. 


38  COTTON    IS     KING. 

"  It  is  not  iiecessarj,"  continues  the  Report, 
"  to  pursue  these  illustrations.  It  is  sufficiently 
"  apparent,  that  one  great  cause  of  the  fre- 
"  quency  and  increase  of  crime,  is  neglecting  to 
"  raise  the  character  of  the  colored  population. 

"  We  derive  an  argument  in  favor  of  edu- 
"  cation  from  these  facts.  It  appears  from  the 
"  above  statement,  that  about  one-fourth  part 
"  of  all  the  expense  incun-ed  by  the  States 
"  above  mentioned,  for  the  support  of  their 
"  criminal  institutions,  is  for  the  colored  con- 
"  victs.  *  *  Could  these  States  have  antici- 
"  pated  these  surprising  results,  and  appropri- 
"  ated  the  money  to  raise  the  character  of  the 
"  colored  population,  how  much  better  would 
"  have  been  their  prospects,  and  how  much 
"  less  the  expense  of  the  States  through 
"  which  they  are  dispersed,  for  the  support  of 
"  their  colored  convicts !  *  *  If ,  however, 
"  their  character  can  not  be  raised,  where  they 
"  are,  a  powerftil  argument  may  be  derived 
"  from  these  facts,  in  favor  of  colonization,  and 
"  civilized  States  ought  surely  to  be  as  willing 


COTTON    IS     KING.  39 

"  to  expend  money  on  any  given  part  of  its 
"  population,  to  prevent  crime,  as  to  punish  it. 

"  We  can  not  but  indulge  the  hope  that  the 
"  facts  disclosed  above,  if  they  do  not  lead  to 
"  an  effort  to  raise  the  character  of  the  colored 
"  population,  will  strengthen  the  hands  and 
"  encourage  the  hearts  of  all  the  friends  of 
"  colonizing  the  free  people  of  color  in  the 
"  United  States." 

The  Second  Annual  Eeport  of  the  Society, 
dated  June  1, 1827,  gives  the  results  of  its  con- 
tinued investigations  into  the  condition  of  the 
free  colored  people,  in  the  following  language 
and  figures: 

"  Chakacter  of  the  colored  population. 
"  In  the  last  Eeport,  this  subject  was  exhibited 
"  at  considerable  length.  From  a  deep  con- 
"  viction  of  its  importance,  and  an  earnest 
"  desire  to  keep  it  ever  before  the  public  mind, 
"  till  the  remedy  is  applied,  we  present  the 
"  following  table,  showing,  in  regard  to  several 
"  States,  the  whole  population,  the  colored 
"  population,  the  whole  number  of  convicts, 
"  the  number  of  colored  convicts,  proportion  of 


40  COTTON     IS     KING. 

"  convicts  to  the  whole  population,  proportion 
"  of  colored  convicts: 


•S"" 


Sftn 


«l        ll  II  II 


li 


Mass., 523,000  7,000  314  50  1  to  74  1  to  6 

Conn., 275,000  8,000  117  39  1  to  34  1  to  3 

N.  York, 1,372,000  39,000  637  154  1  to  35  1  to  4 

N.Jersey,....    277,000  20,000  74  24  1  to  13  1  to  3 

Penn., 1 ,049,000  30,000  474  1 65  1  to  34  1  to  3 

"Or, 

FropoHion    of  Proportion   of  tJie 

the    Population  Colored  Popr-lat'n 

sent   to  P}-ison.  sent   to   Prison. 

In  Massachusetts, 1  out  of  1665  1  out  of  140 

In  Connecticut, 1  out  of  2350  1  out  of  205 

In  New  York, 1  out  of  2153  1  out  of  253 

In  New  Jersey, 1  out  of  3743  1  out  of  833 

In  Pennsylvania, 1  out  of  2191  1  out  of  161 

EXPEXSE    FOR    THE    SuPPORT    OF    COLORED     CoNVlCTS. 

In  Massachusetts, in  10  years,  $17,734 

In  Connecticut in  15  years,  37,166 

In  New  York, in  27  years,  109,166 

Total, $164  066 

"  Such  is  the  abstract  of  the  information 
"  presented  last  year,  concerning  the  degraded 


COTTOXISKING.  41 

"  character  of  the  colored  population.  The 
"  returns  from  several  prisons  show,  that  the 
"  white  convicts  are  remaining  nearly  the 
"  same,  or  are  diminishing,  while  the  colored 
"  convicts  are  increasing.  At  the  same  time, 
"  the  white  population  is  increasing,  in  the 
"  Northern  States,  much  faster  than  the  colored 
"  population." 

Whole  Ko.  Colored 

of  Convicts.         Convicts.       Proportion. 

In  Massachusetts,    313  50  1  to  6^ 

In  Xew  York, 381  lOl  1  to  4 

In  Xew  Jersey, 67  33  1  to  2 

Such  is  the  testimony  of  men  of  unimpeach- 
able veracity  and  undoubted  philanthropy,  as 
to  the  early  results  of  emancipation  in  the 
United  States.  Had  the  freedmen,  in  the 
Xorthern  States,  improved  their  privileges; 
had  they  established  a  reputation  for  industry, 
integrity,  and  virtue,  far  other  consequences 
would  have  followed  their  emancipation. 
Their  advancement  in  moral  character  would 
have  put  to  shame  the  advocate  for  the  per- 
petuation of  slavery.     Indeed,  there  could  have 

been  no  plausible  argument  found  for  its  con- 
4 


42  COTTON    IS    KING. 

tinuance.  JSTo  regular  exports  of  cotton,  no 
cultivation  of  cane  sugar,  to  give  a  profitable 
character  to  slave  lavor,  had  anj  existence 
when  Jay  and  Feanklin  commenced  their 
labors,  and  when  Congress  took  its  first  step 
for  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade. 

Unfortunately,  the  free  colored  people  per- 
severed in  their  evil  habits.  This  not  only 
served  to  fix  their  own  social  and  political  con- 
dition on  the  level  of  the  slave,  but  it  reacted 
with  fearful  efiect  upon  their  brethren  remain- 
ing in  bondage.  Their  refusing  to  listen  to 
the  counsel  of  the  philanthropists,  who  urged 
them  to  forsake  their  indolence  and  vice,  and 
their  frequent  violations  of  the  laws,  more  than 
all  things  else,  put  a  check  to  the  tendencies, 
in  public  sentiment,  toward  general  emancipa- 
tion. The  failure  of  Fkanklin  to  obtain  the 
means  of  establishing  institutions  for  the  edu- 
cation of  the  blacks,  confirmed  the  popular 
belief  that  such  an  undertaking  was  impracti- 
cable, and  the  whole  African  race,  freedmen 
as  well  as  slaves,  were  viewed  as  an  intolera- 
ble burden,   such   as   the   imports  of  foreign 


COTTON    IS     KING.  4$ 

paupers  are  now  considered.  Thus  the  free 
colored  people  themselves,  ruthlessly  threw  the 
car  of  emancipation  j&,-om  the  track,  and  tore 
up  the  rails  upon  which,  alone,  it  could  move. 

The  opinion  that  the  African  race  would 
become  a  growing  burden  had  its  origin  long 
before  the  Revolution,  and  led  the  colonists  to 
oppose  the  introduction  of  slaves ;  but  failing 
in  this,  through  the  opposition  of  England,  as 
soon  as  they  threw  off  the  foreign  yoke  many 
of  the  States  at  once  crushed  the  system — 
among  the  first  acts  of  sovereignty  by  Yir- 
ginia,  being  the  prohibition  of  the  slave  ti-ade. 
In  the  determination  to  suppress  this  traffic  all 
the  States  united — ^but  in  emancipation  their 
policy  differed.  It  was  found  easier^to  manage 
the  slaves  than  the  free  blacks — at  least  it  was 
claimed  to  be  so — and,  for  this  reason,  the 
Slave  States,  not  long  after  the  others  had  com- 
pleted their  work  of  manumission,  proceeded 
to  enact  laws  prohibiting  emancipations,  ex- 
cept on  condition  that  the  persons  liberated 
should  be  removed.      The   newly   organized 


44  COTTON    IS     KING. 

Free  States,  too,  taking  alarm  at  this,  and 
dreading  the  inllux  of  the  free  colored  people, 
adopted  measures  to  prevent  the  ingress  of  this 
proscribed  and  helpless  race. 

These  movements,  so  distressing  to  the  re- 
flecting colored  man,  be  it  remembered,  were 
not  the  effect  of  the  action  of  Colonizationists, 
but  took  place,  mostly,  long  before  the  organi- 
zation of  the  American  Colonization  Society ; 
and,  at  its  first  annual  meeting,  the  importance 
and  humanit}^  of  Colonization  was  strongly 
urged,  on  the  very  ground  that  the  Slave  States, 
as  soon  as  they  should  find  that  the  persons 
liberated  could  be  sent  to  Afirica,  would  relax 
their  laws  against  emancipation. 

The  slow  progress  made  by  the  great  body 
of  the  free  blacks  in  the  Korth,  or  the  absence, 
rather,  of  any  evidences  of  improvement  in 
industry,  intelligence,  and  morality,  gave  rise 
to  the  notion,  that  before  they  could  be  elevated 
to  an  equality  with  the  whites,  slavery  must  be 
wholly  abolished  throughout  the  Union.  The 
constant  ingress  of  liberated  slaves  from  the 
South,   to  commingle  with    the   free   colored 


COTTON    IS     KING.  45 

people  of  the  Xortli,  tended  to  perpetuate  the 
low  moral  standard  originally  existing  among 
the  blacks ;  and  universal  emancipation  was 
believed  to  be  indispensable  to  the  elevation 
of  the  race.  Those  who  adopted  this  view, 
seem  to  have  overlooked  the  fact,  that  the 
Africans,  of  savage  origin,  could  not  be  ele- 
vated at  once  to  an  equality  with  the  American 
people,  by  the  mere  force  of  legal  enactments. 
More  than  this  was  needed,  for  their  elevation, 
as  all  are  now,  reluctantly,  compelled  to  ac- 
knowledge. Emancipation,  unaccompanied  by 
the  means  of  intellectual  and  moral  culture,  is 
of  but  little  value.  The  savage,  liberated  from 
bondage,  is  a  savage  still. 

The  Slave  States  adopted  opinions,  as  to 
the  negro  character,  opposite  to  those  of  the 
Free  States,  and  would  not  risk  the  experi- 
ment of  emancipation.  They  said,  if  the  Free 
States  feel  themselves  bm*dened  by  the  few 
Africans  they  have  freed,  and  whom  they  find 
it  impracticable  to  educate  and  elevate,  how 
much   o^reater   would    be   the   evil   the   Slave 


46  COTTON    IS     KING. 

States  must  bring  upon  themselves  by  letting 
loose  a  population  nearly  twelve  times  as 
numerous.  Such  an  act,  they  argued,  would 
be  suicidal — would  crush  out  all  progress  in 
civilization ;  or,  in  the  effort  to  elevate  the  ne- 
gro with  the  white  man,  allowing  him  equal 
freedom  of  action,  would  make  the  more  ener- 
getic Anglo-Saxon  the  slave  of  the  indolent 
African.  Such  a  task,  onerous  in  the  highest 
degree,  they  could  not,  and  would  not  under- 
take; such  an  experiment,  on  their  social 
system,  they  dared  not  hazard. 

Another  question,  "How  shall  the  slave 
trade  be  suppressed?"  began  to  be  agitated 
near  the  close  of  the  last  centuiy.  The  moral 
desolation  existing  in  Africa,  was  without  a 
parallel  among  the  nations  of  the  earth.  "When 
the  last  of  our  Northern  States  had  freed  its 
slaves,  not  a  single  Christian  Church  had  been 
Buccessfrilly  established  in  Africa,  and  the 
slave  trade  was  still  leo-alized  to  the  citizens 
of  every  Christian  nation.  Even  its  subse- 
quent prohibition,   by  the  United  States  and 


COTTON    IS     KING.  47 

Euglaud,  had  no  tendency  to  check  the  traffic, 
nor  ameliorate  the  condition  of  the  African. 
The  other  European  powers,  having  now  the 
monopoly  of  the  trade,  continued  to  prosecute 
it  with  a  \dgor  it  never  felt  before.  The  insti- 
tution of  slavery,  while  lessened  in  the  United 
States,  where  it  had  not  yet  been  made  profita- 
ble, was  rapidly  acquiring  an  unprecedented 
enlargement  in  Cuba  and  Brazil,  where  its 
profitable  character  had  been  more  fully  re- 
alized. How  shall  the  slave  trade  be  anni- 
hilated, slavery  extension  prevented,  and 
Africa  receive  a  Christian  civilization?  were 
questions  that  agitated  the  bosom  of  many  a 
philanthropist,  long  after  Wilbeefokce  had 
achieved  his  triumphs. 


CIIAPTEE    III. 

At  the  period  in  the  history  of  Africa,  and 
of  public  sentiment  on  slavery,  which  we  have 
been  considering,  the  American  Colonization 
Society  was  organized.  It  began  its  labors 
when  the  eye  of  the  statesman,  the  philan- 
thropist, and  the  Christian,  could  discover  no 
other  plan  of  overcoming  the  moral  desolation, 
the  universal  oppression  of  the  colored  race, 
than  by  restoring  the  most  enlightened  of  their 
number  to  Afi-ica  itself.  Emancipation,  by 
States,  had  been  at  an  end  for  a  dozen  of 
years.  The  improvement  of  the  free  colored 
people,  in  the  presence  of  the  slave,  was  con- 
sidered impracticable.  Slave  labor  had  be- 
come so  profitable,  as  to  leave  little  ground  to 
expect  general  emancipation,  even  though  all 
other  objections  had  been  removed.  The  slave 
ti-ade  had  increased  twenty-five  per  cent,  during 
the  preceding  ten  years.  Slavery  was  rapidly 
extending  itself  in  the  tropics,  and  could  not 

48 


COTTON    IS     KING.  49 

be  arrested  but  by  the  suppression  of  the  slave 
trade.  The  foothold  of  the  Christian  mission- 
ary was  yet  so  precarious  in  Africa,  as  to 
leave  it  doubtful  whether  he  could  sustain  his 
position. 

The  Colonization  of  the  free  colored  people 
in  Africa,  under  the  teachings  of  the  Christian 
men  who  were  prepared  to  accompany  them, 
it  was  believed,  would  as  fully  meet  all  the 
conditions  of  the  race,  as  was  possible  in  the 
then  existing  state  of  the  world.  It  would 
separate  those  who  should  emigrate  fi*om  all 
further  contact  with  slavery,  and  from  its 
contaminating  influences;  it  would  relax  the 
laws  of  the  Slave  States  against  emancipation, 
and  lead  to  the  more  fr-equeut  liberation  of 
slaves ;  it  would  stimulate  and  encourage  the 
colored  people  remaining  here,  to  engage  in 
efforts  for  their  own  elevation ;  it  would  estab- 
lish fr-ee  republics  along  the  coast  of  Afr-ica, 
and  drive  away  the  slave  trader;  it  would 
prevent  the  extension  of  slavery,  by  means  of 
the  slave  trade,  in  tropical  America ;  it  would 
introduce  civilization  and  Christianity  among 


50  COTTON    IS    KING. 

the  people  of  Africa,  and  overturn  their  bar- 
barism and  bloody  superstitions ;  and,  if  suc- 
cessful, it  would  react  upon  slavery  at  home, 
by  pointing  out  to  the  States  and  General 
Government,  a  mode  by  which  they  might  free 
themselves  fi-om  tlie  whole  African  race. 

The  Society  had  thus  undertaken  as  great 
an  amount  of  work  as  it  could  perform.  The 
field  was  broad  enough,  truly,  for  an  associa- 
__tion  that  hoped  to  obtain  an  income  of  but  five 
to  ten  thousand  dollars  a  year,  and  realized 
annually  an  average  of  only  $3,276  during  the 
first  six  years  of  its  existence.  It  did  not, 
therefore,  include  the  destruction  of  American 
Slavery  among  the  objects  it  labored  to  accom- 
plish. That  subject  had  been  ftdly  discussed ; 
the  ablest  men  in  the  nation  had  labored  for 
its  overthrow;  more  than  half  the  original 
States  of  the  Union  had  emancipated  their 
slaves ;  the  advantages  of  freedom  to  the  col- 
ored man  had  been  tested ;  the  results  had  not 
been  as  favorable  as  anticipated;  the  public 
sentiment  of  the  countiy  was  adverse  to  an 
increase  of  the  free  colored  population ;  the  few 


COTTON    IS     KING.  61 

of  their  number  who  had  risen  to  respecta- 
bility and  affluence,  were  too  widely  separated 
to  act  in  concert  in  promoting  measures  for  the 
general  good ;  and,  until  better  results  should 
follow  the  liberation  of  slaves,  farther  emanci- 
pations, by  the  States,  were  not  to  be  expected. 
The  Mends  of  the  Colonization  Society,  there- 
fore, while  affording  every  encouragement  to 
emancipation  by  individuals,  reftised  to  agitate 
the  question  of  the  general  abolition  of  slaveiy. 
Nor  did  they  thrust  aside  any  other  scheme  of 
benevolence  in  behalf  of  the  African  race. 
Forty  years  had  elapsed  from  the  commence- 
ment of  emancipation  in  the  country,  and 
thirty  from  the  date  of  Franklin's  Appeal, 
before  the  Society  sent  off  its  first  emigrants. 
At  that  date,  no  extended  plans  were  in  ex- 
istence, promising  relief  to  the  free  colored 
man.  A  period  of  lethargy,  among  the  be- 
nevolent, had  succeeded  the  State  emancipa- 
tions, as  a  consequence  of  the  indifference  of 
the  free  colored  people,  as  a  class,  to  their 
degraded  condition.  The  public  sentiment  of 
the  country,  therefore,  was  frilly  prepared  to 


52  COTTONISKING. 

adopt  Colonization  as  the  best  means,  or, 
rather,  as  the  only  means  for  accomplishing 
anything  for  them  or  for  the  African  race.  In- 
deed, so  general  was  the  sentiment  in  favor  of 
Colonization,  somewhere  beyond  the  limits  of 
the  United  States,  that  those  who  disliked 
Africa,  commenced  a  scheme  of  emigration  to 
Hayti,  and  prosecuted  it,  until  eight  thousand 
free  colored  persons  were  removed  to  that 
island — a  number  nearly  equaling  the  whole 
emigration  to  Liberia  up  to  1850.  Hayti  en 
emigration,  however  proved  a  most  disastrous 
experiment. 

But  the  general  acquiescence  in  the  objects 
of  the  Colonization  Society  did  not  long  con- 
tinue. The  exports  of  cotton  from  the  South 
were  then  rapidly  on  the  increase.  Slave  labor 
had  become  profitable,  and  slaves,  in  the 
cotton-growing  States,  were  no  longer  con- 
sidered a  burden.  Seven  years  after  the  first 
emigrants  reached  Liberia,  the  South  exported 
294,310,115  lbs.  of  cotton ;  and,  the  year 
following,     the    total     cotton     crop     reached 


COTTON    IS     KING.  53 

325,000,000  lbs.  But  a  great  depression  in 
prices  had  occurred,*  and  alarmed  the  plant- 
ers for  their  safety.  They  had  decided  against 
emancipation,  and  now  to  have  their  slaves 
rendered  valueless,  was  an  evil  they  were 
determined  to  avert.  The  Report  of  the  Bos- 
ton Prison  Discipline  Society,  which  appeared 
at  this  moment,  was  well  calculated,  by  the 
disclosures  it  made",  to  increase  the  alarm  in 
the  South,  and  to  confirm  slaveholders  in  their 
belief  of  the  dangers  of  emancipation. 

At  this  juncture,  a  warfare  against  Coloni- 
zation was  commenced  at  the  South,  and  it  was 
pronounced  an  Abolition  scheme  in  disguise. 
In  defending  itself,  the  Society  re-asserted  its 
principles  of  neutrality  in  relation  to  slavery, 
and  that  it  had  only  in  view  the  colonization 
of  the  free  colored  people.  In  the  heat  of 
the  contest,  the  South  were  reminded  of  their 
former  sentiments  in  relation  to  the  whole 
colored  population,  and  that  Colonization 
merely   proposed    removing    one    division    of 

*  See  Table  I,  Appendix. 


64  COTTON     IS     KING. 

a  people  they  had  pronounced  a  public  bur- 
den.* 

The  Emancipationists  at  the  North  had 
only  lent  their  aid  to  Colonization  in  the  hope 
that  it  would  prove  an  able  auxiliary  to  Abo- 
lition ;  but  when  the  Society  declared  its  un- 
alterable purpose  to  adhere  to  its  original  posi- 
tion of  neutrality,  they  withdrew  their  support, 
and  commenced  hostilities  against  it.     "The 


*  The  sentiment  of  the  Colonization  Society,  •was  ex- 
pressed in  the  following  resolution,  embraced  in  its  Annual 
Report  of  1826: 

"Resolved,  That  the  Society  disclaims,  in  the  most  unqualified 
terms,  the  design  attributed  to  it,  of  interfering,  on  the  one  hand, 
with  the  legal  rights  and  obligations  of  slavery;  and,  on  the  other, 
of  perpetuating  its  existence  within  the  limits  of  the  country." 

On  another  occasion  Mr.  Clay,  on  behalf  of  the  Society, 
defined  its  position  thus : 

"It  protested,  from  the  commencement,  and  throughout  all  its 
progress,  and  it  now  protests,  that  it  entertains  no  purpose,  on  its 
own  authority,  or  by  its  own  means,  to  attempt  emancipation,  partial 
or  general;  that  it  knows  the  General  Government  has  no  constitu- 
tional power  to  achieve  such  an  object;  that  it  believes  that  the 
States,  and  the  States  only,  which  tolerate  slavery,  can  accomplish 
the  work  of  emancipation;  and  that  it  ought  to  be  left  to  them 
exclusively,  absolutely,  and  voluntarily,  to  decide  the  question."— 
Tenth  .Annual  Report,  p.  14,  1828. 


COTTON     IS     KING.  65 

Anti-Slavery  Society,"  said  a  distinguished 
Abolitionist,  "began  with  a  declaration  of  war 
against  the  Colonization  Society."  *  This  feel- 
ing of  hostility  was  greatly  increased  by  the 
action  of  the  Abolitionists  of  England.  The 
doctrine  of  "Immediate,  not  Gradual  Aboli- 
tion," was  announced  by  them  as  their  creed ; 
and  the  Anti-Slavery  men  of  the  United  States 
adopted  it  as  the  basis  of  their  action.  Its  suc- 
cess in  the  English  Parliament,  in  procuring 
the  passage  of  the  Act  for  "West  India  Emanci- 
pation, in  1833,  gave  a  great  impulse  to  the 
Abolition  cause  in  the  United  States. 

In  1832,  William  Lloyd  Garrison  declared 
hostilities  against  the  Colonization  Society;  in 
1834,  James  G.  Birney  followed  his  example; 
and,  in  1836,  GERRm  Smith  also  abandoned 
the  cause.  The  ]N^orth  everywhere  resounded 
with  the  cry  of  "Immediate  Abolition;"  and, 
in  1837,  the  Abolitionists  numbered  1,015  so- 
cieties ;  had  seventy  agents  under  commission, 
and  an  income,  for  the  year,  of  836,000. f    The 

•  Geeeitt  Smith,  1835.  f  Lundy's  Life. 


56  COTTON     IS     KING. 

Colonization  Society,  on  the  other  hand,  was 
greatly  embarrassed.  Its  income,  in  1838,  was 
reduced  to  810,900;  it  was  deeply  in  debt ;  the 
parent  Society  did  not  send  a  single  emigrant, 
that  year,  to  Liberia;  and  its  enemies  pro- 
nounced it  bankrupt  and  dead.* 

But  did  the  Abolitionists  succeed  in  forcing 
Emancipation  upon  the  South,  when  they  had 
thus  rendered  Colonization  powerless?  Did 
the  fetters  fall  from  the  slave  at  their  bidding  ? 
Did  fire  from  heaven  descend,  and  consume 
the  slaveholder  at  their  invocation  ?  !N'o  such 
thing !  They  had  not  touched  the  true  cause 
of  the  extension  of  slavery.  They  had  not  dis- 
covered the  secret  of  its  power ;  and,  therefore, 
its  locks  remained  unshorn,  its  strength  una- 
bated. The  institution  advanced  as  triumph- 
antly as  if  no  opposition  existed.     The  planters 


*  On  the  floor  of  an  Ecclesiastical  Assembly,  one  minister 
pronounced  Colonization  a  "dead  horse;"  while  another 
claimed  that  his  "  old  mai-e  was  giving  freedom  to  more 
slaves,  by  trotting  off  with  them  to  Canada,  than  the  Colo- 
nization Society  was  sending  of  emigrants  to  Liberia." 


COTTON     IS     KING.  57 

were  progressing  steadily,  in  securing  to  them- 
selves the  monopoly  of  the  cotton  markets  of 
Europe,  and  in  extending  the  area  of  slavery 
at  home.  In  the  same  year  that  Gekritt 
Smtth  declared  for  Abolition,  the  title  of  the 
Indians  to  fifty-five  millions  of  acres  of  land, 
in  the  Slave  States,  was  extinguished,  and  the 
tribes  removed.  The  year  that  Colonization 
was  depressed  to  the  lowest  point,  the  exports 
of  cotton,  from  the  United  States,  amounted  to 
595,952,297  lbs.,  and  the  consumption  of  the 
article  in  England,  to  477,206,108  lbs. 

When  Mr.  Birney  seceded  from  Coloniza- 
tion, he  encouraged  his  new  allies  with  the 
hope,  that  West  India  fr*ee  labor  would  render 
our  slave  labor  less  profitable,  and  emancipa- 
tion, as  a  consequence,  be  more  easily  efiected. 
How  stood  this  matter  six  years  afterward? 
This  wiU  be  best  understood  by  contrast.  In 
1800,  the  West  Indies  exported  17,000,000  lbs. 
of  cotton,  and  the  United  States,  17,789,803 
lbs.  They  were  then  about  equally  productive 
in  that  article.  In  1840,  the  West  India 
exports  had   dwindled  down   to  427,529  lbs., 


68  COTTON    IS    KING. 

while  those  of  the  United  States  had  increased 
to  743,941,061  lbs. 

And  what  was  England  doing  all  this 
while  ?  Having  lost  her  supplies  from  the  West 
Indies,  she  was  quietly  spinning  away  at  Amer- 
ican slave  labor  cotton ;  and  to  ease  the  public 
conscience  of  the  kingdom,  was  loudly  talking 
of  a  free  labor  supply  of  the  commodity  from 
the  banks  of  the  Niger !  But  the  expedition 
Tip  that  river  failed,  and  1845  found  her  manu- 
facturing 626,496,000  lbs.  of  cotton,  mostly  the 
product  of  American  slaves !  The  strength  of 
American  slavery  at  that  moment  may  be  in- 
ferred from  the  fact,  that  we  exported  that  year 
872,905,996  lbs.  of  cotton,  and  our  production 
of  cane  sugar  had  reached  over  200,000,000 
lbs.;  while,  to  make  room  for  slavery  ex- 
tension, we  were  buised  in  the  annexation  of 
Texas  and  in  preparations  for  the  consequent 
war  with  Mexico ! 

But  Abolitionists  themselves,  some  time 
before  this,  had,  mostly,  become  convinced  of 
the  feeble  character  of  their  efforts  against 
slavery,  and  allowed  politicians  to  enlist  them 


COTTON    IS     KING.  59 

in  a  political  crusade,  as  the  last  hope  of  ar- 
resting the  progi-ess  of  the  system.  The  cry 
of  "Immediate  Abolition"  died  away;  reli- 
ance upon  moral  means  was  mainly  abandoned ; 
and  the  limitation  of  the  institution,  geographi- 
cally, became  the  chief  object  of  effort.  The 
results  of  more  than  a  dozen  years  of  political 
action  are  before  the  pubKc,  and  what  has  it 
accomplished !  We  are  not  now  concerned  in 
the  inquiry  of  how  far  the  strategy  of  politi- 
cians succeeded  in  making  the  votes  of  Aboli- 
tionists subservient  to  slavery  extension.  That 
they  did  so,  in  at  least  one  prominent  case, 
will  never  be  denied  by  any  candid  man.  All 
we  intend  to  say,  is,  that  the  cotton  planters, 
instead  of  being  crippled  in  their  operations, 
were  able,  in  the  year  ending  the  last  of  June, 

1853,  to  export  1,111,570,370  lbs.  of  cotton, 
beside  supplying  over  400,000,000  lbs.  for 
home  consumption;  and  that  England,  the 
year  ending  the  last  of  January,  1853, 
consumed  the  unprecedented  quantity  of 
817,998,048    lbs.   of   that   staple.      The  year 

1854,  instead    of   finding    slavery    perishing 


60  COTTON    IS     KING. 

nnder  the  blows  it  had  received,  has  wit- 
nessed the  destruction  of  all  the  old  barriers 
to  its  extension,  and  beholds  it  expanded 
widely  enough  for  the  profitable  employment 
of  the  slave  population,  with  all  its  natural 
increase,  for  a  hundred  years  to  come  ! ! 

^ political  action  against  slavery  has  been 
thus  disastrously  unfortunate,  how  is  it  with 
Anti- Slavery  action^  at  large,  as  to  its  efficiency 
at  this  moment  ?  On  this  point,  hear  the  testi- 
mony of  a  correspondent  of  Frederick  Doug- 
lass' Paper ^  January  26,  1855 : 

"  How  gloriously  did  the  Anti-Slavery  cause 
arise  *  *  in  1833-4 !  And  now  what  is  it, 
in  our  agency !  *  *  What  is  it,  through  the 
errors  or  crimes  of  its  advocates  variously — ■ 
probably  quite  as  much  as  through  the  brazen, 
gross,  and  licentious  wickedness  of  its  enemies. 
Alas !  what  is  it  but  a  mutilated,  feeble,  dis- 
cordant, and  half-expiring  instrument,  at  which 
Satan  and  his  children,  legally  and  illegally, 
scofi*!     Of  it  I  despair." 

Such  are  the  crowning  results  of  both  po- 
litical and  Anti-Slavery  action,  for  the  over- 


COTTON    IS     KING.  01 

throw  of  slavery !  Sucli  are  the  demonstrations 
of  their  ntter  impotency  as  a  means  of  relief  to 
the  bond  and  fi'ee  of  the  colored  people  ! 

Surely,  then,  it  is  time  that  some  other 
measures  should  be  devised,  than  those  hith- 
erto adopted,  for  the  melioration  of  the  African 
race !  Surely,  too,  it  is  time  for  the  American 
people  to  rebuke  that  class  of  politicians,  Korth 
and  South,  whose  only  capital  consists  in  keep- 
ing up  a  fruitless  warfare  upon  the  subject  of 
slavery — nay!  abundant  in  fruits  to  the  poor 
colored  man;  but  to  him,  "their  vine  is  of  the 
vine  of  Sodom,  and  of  the  fields  of  Gomorrah ; 
their  grapes  are  grapes  of  gall,  their  clusters 
are  bitter ;  their  wine  is  the  poison  of  dragons, 
and  the  cruel  venom  of  asps."* 

The  application  of  this  language,  to  the  case 
under  consideration,  will  be  frilly  justified  when 
the  facts,  in  the  remaining  pages  of  this  work, 
are  carefully  studied. 

*  Deuteronomy  xxxii,  32,  33. 


CHAPTER   lY. 


Topic  2. — The  relations  of  American  Slavery  to  the  Industrial  in- 
terests of  our  country;  to  the  demands  of  Commerce;  and  to 
the  present  Political  crisis. 


The  institution  of  slavery,  at  this  moment, 
gives  indications  of  a  vitality  that  was  never 
anticipated  by  its  friends  or  foes.  Its  enemies 
often  supposed  it  about  ready  to  expire,  from 
the  wounds  they  had  inflicted,  when  in  truth 
it  had  taken  two  steps  in  advance,  while  they 
had  taken  twice  the  number  in  an  opposite 
direction.  In  each  successive  conflict,  its  as- 
sailants have  been  weakened,  while  its  do- 
minion has  been  extended. 

This  has  arisen  from  causes  too  generally 
overlooked.  Slavery  is  not  an  isolated  system, 
but  is  so  mingled  with  the  business  of  the 
world,  that  it  derives  facilities  from  the  most 
innocent  transactions.  Capital  and  labor,  in 
Europe  and  America,  are  largely  employed  in 
the  manufacture  of  cotton.     These  goods,  to  a 

62 


COTTON    IS     KING.  63 

gi'eat  extent,  may  be  seen  freighting  every 
vessel,  from  Christian  nations,  that  ti-averses 
the  seas  of  the  globe;  and  filling  the  ware- 
houses and  shelves  of  the  merchants  over  two- 
thirds  of  the  world/  By  the  industry,  skill, 
and  enterprise  employed  in  the  manufacture  of 
cotton,  mankind  are  better  clothed ;  their  com- 
fort better  promoted;  general  industry  more 
highly  stimulated ;  commerce  more  widely  ex- 
tended ;  and  civilization  more  rapidly  advanced 
than  in  any  preceding  age. 

To  the  superficial  observer,  all  the  agencies, 
based  upon  the  sale  and  manufacture  of  cotton, 
seem  to  be  legitimately  engaged  in  promoting 
human  happiness ;  and  he,  doubtless,  feels  like 
invoking  Heaven's  choicest  blessings  upon 
them.  When  he  sees  the  stockholders  in  the 
cotton  corporations  receiving  their  dividends, 
the  operatives  their  wages,  the  merchants  their 
profits,  and  civilized  people  everywhere  clothed 
comfortably  in  cottons,  he  can  not  refi-ain  fr-om 
exclaiming:  "The  lines  have  fallen  unto  them 
in  pleasant  places;  yea,  they  have  a  goodly 
heritage !" 


64  COTTON     IS    KING. 

But  turn  a  moment  to  the  soiu'ce  whence 
the  raw  cotton,  the  basis  of  these  operations,  is 
obtained,  and  observe  the  aspect  of  things  in 
that  direction.  When  the  statistics  on  the 
subject  are  examined,  it  appears  that  nearly  all 
the  cotton  consumed  in  the  Christian  world  is 
the  product  of  the  slave  labor  of  the  United 
States.*  It  is  this  monopoly  that  has  given 
slavery  its  commercial  value ;  and,  while  this 
monopoly  is  retained,  the  institution  will  con- 
tinue to  extend  itself  wherever  it  can  find  room 
to  spread.  He  who  looks  for  any  other  result, 
must  expect  that  nations,  which,  for  centuries, 
have  waged  war  to  extend  their  commerce,  will 
now  abandon  that  means  of  aggrandizement, 
and  bankrupt  themselves  to  force  the  abolition 
of  American  slavery ! 

This  is  not  all.  The  economical  value  of 
slavery,  as  an  agency  for  suppling  the  means 
of  extending  manufactm-es  and  commerce,  has 
long  been  understood  by  statesmen.  The  dis- 
covery of  the  power  of  steam,  and  the  inven- 

*See  Appendix,  Table  I. 


COTTON    IS    KING.  65 

tions  in  machinery,  for  preparing  and  manu- 
factui'ing  cotton,  revealed  the  important  fact, 
that  a  single  island,  having  the  monopoly  se- 
cm-ed  to  itself,  conld  supply  the  world  with 
clothing.  Great  Britain  attemjpted  to  gain 
this  monoj^oly;  and,  to  prevent  other  countries 
from  rivaling  her,  she  long  prohibited  all  emi- 
gi-ation  of  sHllfiil  mechanics  from  the  kingdom, 
as  well  as  all  exports  of  machinery.  As 
country  after  country  was  opened  to  her  com- 
merce, the  markets  for  her  manufactures  were 
extended,  and  the  demand  for  the  raw  material 
increased.  The  benefits  of  this  enlarged  com- 
merce of  the  world,  were  not  confined  to  a 
single  nation,  but  mutually  enjoyed  by  all. 
As  each  had  products  to  sell,  peculiar  to  itself, 
the  advantages  often  gained  by  one  were  no 
deti'iment  to  the  others.  The  principal  articles 
demanded  by  this  increasing  commerce  have 
been  cofiee,  sugar,  and  cotton,  in  the  produc- 
tion of  which  slave  labor  has  greatly  pre- 
dominated. Since  the  enlargement  of  manu- 
factures, cotton  has  entered   more  extensively 

into  commerce  than  cofiee  and  sugar,  though 
6 


^6  COTTON    IS    KING. 

the  demand  for  all  three  has  advanced  with  the 
greatest  rapidity.  England  could  only  become 
a  great  commercial  nation,  through  the  agency 
of  her  manufactures.  She  was  the  best  sup- 
plied, of  all  the  nations,  with  the  necessary 
capital,  skill,  labor,  and  fuel,  to  extend  her 
commerce  by  this  means.  But,  for  the  raw 
material,  to  supply  her  manufactories,  she  was 
dependent  upon  other  countries.  The  planters 
of  the  United  States  wero- the  most  favorably 
situated  for  the  cultivation  of  cotton;  and, 
while  Great  Britain  was  aiming  at  monopo- 
lizing its  manufacture,  they  attempted  to  mo- 
nopolize  the  marhets  for  that  staple.  This 
led  to  a  fusion  of  interests  between  them  and 
the  British  manufacturers  ;  and  to  the  adoption 
of  principles  in  political  economy,  which,  if 
rendered  effective,  would  promote  the  interests 
,of  this  coalition.  With  the  advantages  pos- 
sessed by  the  English  manufacturers,  "Free 
Trade "  would  render  all  other  nations  subser- 
vient to  their  interests ;  and,  so  far  as  their 
operations  should  be  increased,  just  so  far 
would   the   demand   for   American   cotton   be 


COTTON    IS    KING.  67 

extended.  The  details  of  the  success  of  the 
parties  to  this  combination,  and  the  opposition 
they  have  had  to  encounter,  are  left  to  be 
noticed  more  fully  hereafter.  To  the  cotton 
planters,  the  copartnership  has  been  eminently 
advantageous. 

How  far  the  other  agricultural  interests  of 
the  United  States  are  promoted,  by  extending 
the  cultivation  of  cotton,  may  be  inferred  from 
the  Census  returns  of  1850,  and  the  Congres- 
sional Reports  on  Commerce  and  l^avigation, 
for  1854:.*  Cotton  and  tobacco,  only,  are 
largely  exported.  The  production  of  sugar 
does  not  yet  equal  our  consumption  of  the 
article,  and  we  import,  chiefly  from  slave  labor 
countries,  445,445,680  lbs.  to  make  up  the 
deficiency.!  But  of  cotton  and  tobacco,  we 
export  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  amount 
produced ;  while  of  other  products  of  the  ag- 
riculturists, less  than  the  one  forty-sixth  part 
is  exported.  Foreign  nations,  generally,  can 
grow  their  provisions,  but  can  not  grow  their 

*  See  Appendix,  Table  II.  t  Table  III. 


68  COTTON    IS     KING. 

tobacco  and  cotton.  Our  surplus  provisions, 
not  exported,  go  to  the  villages,  towns,  and 
cities,  to  feed  the  mechanics,  manufacturers, 
merchants,  professional  men,  and  others ;  or  to 
the  cotton  and  sugar  districts  of  the  South,  to 
feed  the  planters  and  their  slaves.  The  in- 
crease of  mechanics  and  manufactm'ers  at  the 
North,  and  the  expansion  of  slavery  at  the 
South,  therefore,  augment  the  markets  for 
provisions,  and  promote  the  prosperity  of  the 
farmer.  As  the  mechanical  population  in- 
creases, the  implements  of  industiy  and  ar- 
ticles of  furniture  are  multiplied,  so  that  both 
farmer  and  planter  can  be  supplied  with  them 
on  easier  terms.  As  foreign  nations  open  their 
markets  to  cotton  fabrics,  increased  demands 
for  the  raw  material  are  made.  As  new 
grazing  and  grain-growing  States  are  devel- 
oped, and  teem  with  their  surplus  productions, 
the  mechanic  is  benefited,  and  the  j)lanter, 
relieved  from  food-raising,  can  employ  his 
slaves  more  extensively  upon  cotton.  It  is 
thus  that  our  exports  are  increased;  our 
foreign  commerce  advanced;    the  home  mar- 


COTTON    IS     KING.  69 

kets  of  the  meclianic  and  farmer  extended,  and 
the  wealth  of  the  nation  promoted.     It  is  thus, 
also,  that  the— feee  labor  of  i^e  country  finds        / 
remunerating  markets  for  its  products^though       / 
at  ihe  expense  of  serving  as  an  efficient  auxil- 
iary in  the  extension  of  slavery ! 

But  more:  So  speedily  are  new  grain- 
growing  States  springing  up;  so  vast  is  the 
territory  owned  by  the  United  States,  ready  for 
settlement ;  and  so  enormous  will  soon  be  the 
amount  of  p]?4)duets  demanding  profitable  mar- 
kets, that  the  national  government  has  been 
seeking  new  outlets  for  them,  upon  oui-  own 
continent,  to  which,  alone,  they  can  be  advan- 
tageously ti'anspoi*ted.  That  such  outlets,  when 
our  vast  possessions  Westward  are  brought 
under  cultivation,  will  be  an  imperious  neces- 
sity, is  known  to  every  Statesman.  The  farm- 
ers of  these  new  States,  after  the  example  of 
those  of  the  older  sections  of  the  country,  will 
demand  a  market  for  their  products.  This  can 
be  furnished,  only,  by  the  extension  of  slavery ; 
by  the  acquisition  of  more  ti'opical  territory ; 
by  opening  the  ports  of  Brazil,  and  other  South 


70  COTTON    IS     KING. 

American  countries,  to  the  admission  of  our 
provisions ;  by  their  free  importation  into  Eu- 
ropean countries ;  or  by  a  vast  enlargement  of 
domestic  manufactures,  to  the  exclusion  of 
foreign  goods  from  the  country.  Look  at  this 
question  as  it  now  stands,  and  then  judge  of 
what  it  must  be  twenty  years  hence.  The 
class  of  products  under  consideration,  in  the 
whole  country,  in  1853,  were  valued  at 
81,551,176,490;  of  which  there  were  exported 
to  foreign  countries,  to  the  value  of  only 
833,809,126.*  The  planter  will  not  assent  to 
any  check  upon  the  foreign  imports  of  the 
country,  for  the  benefit  of  the  farmer.  This 
demands  the  adoption  of  vigorous  measures  to 
secure  a  market  for  his  j)roducts  by  some  of  the 
other  modes  stated.  Hence,  the  orders  of  our 
Executive,  in  1851,  for  the  exploration  of  the 
valley  of  the  Amazon ;  the  efibrts,  in  1854,  to 
obtain  a  treaty  with  Brazil,  for  the  fi*ee  navi- 
gation of  that  immense  river ;  the  negotiations 
for  a  military  foothold  in  St.  Domingo;  and 

*See  Appendix,  Table  II. 


COTTON    IS    KING.  71 

the  determination  to  acquire  Cuba.  But  we 
must  not  anticipate  topics  to  be  considered  at 
a  later  period  in  our  discussion. 


CHAPTER    y 


Antecedent  to  all  the  movements  noticed  in 
the  preceding  chapter,  Great  Britain  had  fore- 
seen the  coming  increased  demand  for  tropical 
products.  Indeed,  her  "West  Indian  policy,  of 
a  few  years  previous,  had  hastened  the  crisis ; 
and,  to  repair  her  injuries,  and  meet  the  gen- 
eral outcry  for  cotton,  she  made  the  most 
vigorous  efforts  to  promote  its  cultivation  in 
her  own  ti'opical  possessions.  The  motives 
prompting  her  to  this  policy,  need  not  be  re- 
ferred to  here,  as  they  will  be  noticed  hereafter. 
The  Hon.  George  Thompson,  it  wiU  be  re- 
membered, when  urging  the  increase  of  cotton 
cultivation  in  the  East  Indies,  declared  that 
the  scheme  must  succeed,  and  that,  soon,  all 
slave  labor  cotton  would  be  repudiated  by  the 


72  COTTON    IS     KING. 

British  manufacturers.  Mr.  Garrison  indorsed 
the  measure,  and  expressed  his  belief  that, 
with  its  success,  the  American  slave  system 
must  inevitably  perish  from  starvation!  But 
England's  efforts  signally  failed,  and  the  golden 
apple,  fully  ripened,  dropped  into  the  lap  of 
our  cotton  planters.*  The  year  that  heard 
Thompson's  pompous  predictions, f  witnessed 
the  consumption  of  but  445,744,000  lbs.  of 
cotton,  by  England;  while,  fourteen  years 
later,  she  used  817,998,048  lbs.,  nearly 
700,000,000  lbs.  of  which  were  obtained  from 
America ! 

That  we  have  not  overstated  her  de- 
pendence upon  our  slave  labor  for  cotton  is 
a  fact  of  world-wide  notoriety.  Blackwood's 
Magazine,  January,  1853,  in  referring  to  the 
cultivation  of  the  article,  by  the  United  States, 
says: 

♦Paganism  has,  long  since,  attained  its  maximum  in 
Agricultural  industry,  and  the  introduction  of  Christian 
civilization,  into  India,  can,  alone,  lead  to  an  increase  of  its 
productions  for  export. 

f 1839. 


COTTON    IS     KING.  =73 

"With  its  increased  growth  has  sprung 
up  that  mercantile  navy,  which  now  waves  its 
stripes  and  stars  over  every  sea,  and  that 
foreign  influence,  which  has  placed  the  internal 
peace — we  may  say  the  subsistence  of  millions 
in  every  manufacturing  country  in  Europe — 
within  the  power  of  an  oligarchy  of  planters." 

In  reference  to  the  same  subject,  the  Lon- 
don Economist  quotes  as  follows : 

"Let  any  great  social  or  physical  convul- 
sion visit  the  United  States,  and  England 
would  feel  the  shock  from  Land's  End  to  John 
O'Groats.  The  lives  of  nearly  two  millions  of 
our  counti-ymen  are  dependent  upon  the  cotton 
crops  of  America ;  their  destiny  may  be  said, 
without  any  kind  of  hyperbole,  to  hang  upon  a 
thread.  Should  any  dire  calamity  befall  the 
land  of  cotton,  a  thousand  of  our  merchant 
ships  would  rot  idly  in  dock ;  ten  thousand 
mills  must  stop  their  busy  looms ;  two  thou- 
sand thousand  mouths  would  starve,  for  lack 
of  food  to  feed  them." 

A   more   definite   statement  of  England's 

indebtedness   to   cotton,   is   given  by  McCul- 

7 


74  COTTON    IS     KING. 

lough;  wlio  shows  that  as  far  back  as  1832, 
her  exports  of  cotton  fabrics  were  equal  in 
value  to  about  tioo-tJiirds  of  all  the  woven 
fabrics  expoi*ted  from  the  empire.  The  same 
state  of  things,  nearly,  existed  in  1849,  when 
the  cotton  fabrics  exported,  according  to  the 
London  Economist^  were  valued  at  about 
f  140,000,000,  while  all  the  other  woven  fab- 
rics exported  did  not  quite  reach  to  the  value 
of  ^68,000,000.  On  consulting  the  same  au- 
thority, of  still  later  dates,  it  appears,  that  the 
last  four  years  has  produced  no  material  change 
in  the  relations  which  the  different  classes  of 
British  fabrics,  exported,  bear  to  each  other. 
The  present  condition  of  the  demand  and 
supplies  of  cotton,  throughout  Europe,  and 
the  extent  to  which  the  increasing  consump- 
tion of  that  staple  must  stimulate  the  Amer- 
ican planters  to  its  increased  production,  will 
be  noticed  in  the  proper  place. 

There  was  a  time  when  American  slave 
labor  sustained  no  such  relations  to  the  manu- 
factures and  commerce  of  the  world  as  it  now 


COTTON     18     KING.  75 

SO  firmly  holds ;  and  when,  by  the  adoption  of 
proper  measures,  on  the  part  of  the  free  col- 
ored people  and  their  friends,  the  emancipa- 
tion of  the  slaves,  in  all  the  States,  might  have 
been  efiected.  But  that  period  has  passed 
forever  away,  and  causes,  unforeseen,  have  come 
into  operation,  which  are  too  powerful  to  be 
overcome  by  any  agencies  that  have  since  been 
employed.*  "What  Divine  Providence  may 
have  in  store  for  the  future,  we  know  not ;  but, 
at  present,  the  institution  of  slavery  is  sus- 
tained by  numberless  pillars,  too  massive  for 
human  power  and  wisdom  to  overthrow. 

Take  another  view  of  this  subject.  To  say 
nothing  now  of  the  tobacco,  rice,  and  sugar, 
which  are  the  products  of  our  slave  labor,  we 
exported  raw  cotton  to  the  value  of  8109,456,404 
in  1853.     Its  destination  was,  to  Great  Britain, 

*  See  the  speech  of  Hox.  Gerritt  Smith,  on  the  "  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Bill,"  in  which  he  asserts,  that  the  invention  of 
the  Cotton  Gin  fastened  slavery  upon  the  countiy;  and  that, 
but  for  its  invention,  slavery  would  long  since  hav^e  dis- 
appeared. 


76  COTTON     IS     KING. 

768,596,498  lbs.;  to  the  Continent  of  Europe, 
335,271,434  lbs.;  to  countries  on  our  own  Con- 
tinent, 7,702,438  lbs.;  making  the  total  ex- 
ports, 1,111,570,370  lbs.  The  entire  crop  of 
that  year  being  1,600,000,000  lbs.,  gives,  for 
home  consumption,  488,429,630  lbs.  Of  this, 
there  was  manufactm-ed  into  cotton  fabrics  to 
the  value  of  ^61,869,274  ;*  of  which  there  was 
retained,  for  home  markets,  to  the  value  of 
^53,100,290.  Om*  imports  of  cotton  fabrics 
from  Em-ope,  in  1853,  for  consumption, 
amounted  in  value  to  $26,477,950:  thus 
making  our  cottons,  foreign  and  domestic, 
for  that  year,  cost  us  $79,578,240. 

This,  now,  is  what  becomes  of  our  cotton; 
this  is  the  way  in  which  it  so  largely  consti- 
tutes the  basis  of  commerce  and  trade ;  and 
this  is  the  nature  of  the  relations  existing 
between  the  slavery  of  the  United  States  and 
the  material  interests  of  the  world. 

*  This  estimate  is  probably  too  low,  being  taken  from 
the  census  of  1850.  The  exports  of  cottons  for  1850  were 
14,734,424;  and  for  1853,  $8,768,894 ;  having  nearly  doubled 
in  four  years. 


COTTON     IS     KING.  77 

But  have  the  United  States  no  other  great 
leading  interests,  except  those  which  are 
involved  in  the  production  of  cotton?  Cer- 
tainly, they  have.  Here  is  a  great  field  for  the 
growth  of  provisions.  In  ordinary  years, 
exclusive  of  tobacco  and  cotton,  our  agricul- 
tural property,  when  added  to  the  domestic 
animals  and  their  products,  amounts  in  value 
to  81,551,176,490.  Of  this,  there  is  exported 
only  to  the  value  of  833,809,126  ;  which  leaves 
for  home  consumption  and  use,  a  remainder  to 
the  value  of  81,517,367,364.*  The  portions 
of  the  property  represented  by  this  immense 
sum  of  money,  which  pass  from  the  hands  of 
the  agriculturists,  are  distributed  throughout 
the  Union,  for  the  support  of  the  day  laborers, 
sailors,  mechanics,  manufacturers,  traders,  mer- 
chants, professional  men,  planters,  and  the 
slave  population.  This  is  what  becomes  of 
our  provisions. 

[       Besides  this   annual  consumption  of  pro- 
visions, most  of  which  is  the  product  oi  free 

*  See  Table  II,  Appendix. 


78  COTTON     IS     KING. 

labm\  the  people  of  the  United  States  use  a 
|vast  amount  of  groceries^  which  are  mainly  of 
slave  labor  origin.  Boundless  as  is  the  influ- 
ence of  cotton,  in  stimulating  slavery  extension, 
that  of  the  cultivation  of  groceries  falls  but 
little  short  of  it;  the  chief  difference  being, 
that  they  do  not  receive  such  an  increased 
value  under  the  hand  of  manufacturers.  The 
cultivation  of  coffee,  in  Brazil,  employs  as  great 
a  number  of  slaves  as  that  of  cotton  in  the 
United  States. 

But,  to  comprehend  fiilly  our  indebtedness 
to  slave  labor  for  groceries,  we  must  descend 
to  particulars.  Our  imports  of  coffee,  tobacco, 
sugar,  and  molasses,  for  1853,  amounted  in 
value  to  $38,479,000;  of  which  the  hand  of 
the  slave,  in  Brazil  and  Cuba,  mainly,  supplied 
to  the  value  of  834,451,000.*  This  shows  the 
extent  to  which  we  are  sustaining  foreign 
slavery^  by  the  consumption  of  these  four 
products.  But  this  is  not  our  whole  indebted- 
ness to  slavery  for  groceries.     Of  the  domestic 

*See  Table  III,  Appendix. 


COTTON     IS     KING.  79 

grown  tobacco,  valued  at  ^19,975,000,  of  which 
we  retain  nearly  one-half,  the  Slave  States 
produce  to  the  value  of  ^16,787,000 ;  of  do- 
mestic rice,  the  product  of  the  South,  we  con- 
sume to  the  value  of  87,092,000 ;  of  domestic 
slave  grown  sugar  and  molasses,  we  take,  for 
home  consumption,  to  the  value  of  83^,779,000 ; 
making  our  grocery  account,  with  domestio 
slavery^  foot  up  to  the  sum  of  850,4-19,000. 
Our  whole  indebtedness,  then,  to  slavery, 
foreign  and  domestic,  for  these  fom*  commod- 
ities, after  deducting  two  millions  of  re-ex- 
ports, amounts  to  882,607,000. 

By  adding  the  value  of  the  foreign  and 
domestic  cotton  fabrics,  consumed  annually  in 
the  United  States,  to  the  yearly  cost  of  the 
groceries  which  the  countiy  uses,  our  total 
indebtedness,  for  articles  of  slave  labor  origin, 
wiU  be  found  swelHng  up  to  the  enormous  sum 
of  8162,185,24:0. 

We  have  now  seen  the  channels  through 
which  our  cotton  passes  off  into  the  great  sea 
of  commerce,  to  furnish  the  world  its  clothing. 


80  COTTON    IS    KING. 

We  have  seen  the  origin  and  value  of  our 
provisions^  and  to  whom  they  are  sold.  We 
have  seen  the  sources  whence  om*  groceries  are 
derived,  and  the  millions  of  money  they  cost. 
To  ascertain  how  far  these  several  interests  are 
sustained  by  one  another,  will  be  to  determine 
how  far  any  one  of  them  becomes  an  element 
of  expansion  to  the  others.  To  decide  a  ques- 
tion of  this  nature  with  precision  is  imprac- 
ticable. The  statistics  are  not  attainable.  It 
may  be  illustrated,  however,  in  various  ways, 
so  as  to  obtain  a  conclusion  proximately  accu- 
rate. Suppose,  for  example,  that  the  supplies 
of  food  from  the  l^orth  were  cut  off,  the  manu- 
factories left  in  their  present  condition,  and  the 
planters  forced  to  raise  their  provisions  and 
draught  animals:  in  such  circumstances,  the 
export  of  cotton  must  cease,  as  the  lands  of 
these  States  could  not  be  made  to  yield  more 
than  would  subsist  their  own  population,  and 
supply  the  cotton  demanded  by  the  J^orthern 
States.  Now,  if  this  be  true  of  the  agricul- 
tural resources  of  the  cotton  States — and  it  is 
believed  to  be  nearly  the  full  extent  of  their 


COTTON    IS     KING.  81 

capacity — then  the  surplus  of  cotton,  to  the 
value  of  more  than  a  hundred  millions  of  dol- 
lars, now  annually  sent  abroad,  stands  as  the 
representative  of  the  yearly  supplies  which  the 
cotton  planters  receive  from  the  farmers  north 
of  the  cotton  line.  This,  therefore,  as  will 
afterward  more  fully  appear,  may  be  taken  as 
the  probable  extent  to  which  the  supplies  from 
the  ]!Torth  serve  as  an  element  of  slavery  ex- 
pansion, in  the  article  of  cotton  alone. 


CHAPTER   YI. 

Bdt  the  subject  of  the  relations  of  American 
slavery  to  the  economical  interests  of  the  world, 
demands  a  still  closer  scrutiny,  in  order  that 
the  causes  of  the  failure  of  Abolitionism  to 
arrest  its  progress,  as  well  as  the  present  rela- 
tions of  the  institution  to  the  politics  of  the 
country,  may  fully  appear. 

Slave  labor  has  seldom  been  made  profitable 
where  it  has  been  wholly  employed  in  grazing 
and  grain-growing;  but  it  becomes  remuner- 
ative in  proportion  as  the  planters  can  devote 
their  attention  to  cotton,  sugar,  rice,  or  tobacco. 
To  render  Southern  slavery  profitable  in  the 
highest  degree,  therefore,  the  slaves  must  be 
employed  upon  some  one  of  these  articles,  and 
be  sustained  by  a  supply  of  food  and  draught 
animals  from  Northern  agriculturists;  and, 
before  the  planter's  supplies  are  complete,  to 
these  must  be  added  cotton  gins,  implements 


COTTON    IS     KING.  SS 

of  husbandly,  farnitiire,  and  tools,  from  N'orth- 
ern  mechanics.  This  is  a  point  of  the  utmost 
moment,  and  must  be  considered  more  at 
length. 

It  has  long  been  a  vital  question  to  the 
success  of  the  slaveholder,  to  know  how  he 
could  render  the  labor  of  his  slaves  the  most 
profitable.  The  gi-ain-gr owing  States  had  to 
emancipate  their  slaves,  to  rid  themselves  of 
a  profitless  system.  The  cotton-growing  States, 
ever  after  the  invention  of  the  cotton  gin,  had 
found  the  production  of  that  staple  highly 
remunerative.  The  logical  conclusion,  from 
these  different  results,  was,  that  the  less  pro- 
visions, and  the  more  cotton  grown  by  the 
planter,  the  greater  would  be  his  profits.  This 
must  be  noted  with  special  care.  Markets  for 
the  surplus  products  of  the  farmer  of  the 
Xorth,  were  equally  as  important  to  him  as 
the  supply  of  Provisions  was  to  the  planter. 
But  the  planter,  to  be  eminently  successftil, 
must  purchase  his  supplies,  at  the  lowest  j)os- 
sible  prices;  while  the  farmer,  to  secure  his 
prosperity,  must  sell  his  products  at  the  highest 


84  COTTON    IS     KING. 

possible  rates.  Few,  indeed,  can  be  so  ill 
informed,  as  not  to  know,  that  these  two 
topics,  for  many  years,  were  involved  in  the 
"Free  Trade"  and  "Protective  Tariff"  doc- 
trines, and  afforded  the  materiel  of  the  political 
contests  between  the  North  and  the  South — • 
between  free  labor  and  slave  labor.  A  very 
brief  notice  of  the  history  of  that  conti'oversy, 
will  demonstrate  the  ti'uth  of  this  assertion. 

The  attempt  of  the  agricultural  States, 
thirty  years  since,  to  establish  the  protective 
policy,  and  promote  "  Domestic  Manufactures," 
was  a  struggle  to  create  such  a  division  of 
labor,  as  would  afford  a  "Home  Market"  for 
their  products,  no  longer  in  demand  abroad. 
The  first  decisive  action  on  the  question,  by 
Congress,  was  in  1824 ;  when  the  distress  in 
these  States,  and  the  measures  proposed  for 
their  relief,  by  national  legislation,  were  dis- 
cussed on  the  passage  of  the  "  Tariff  Bill "  of 
that  year.  The  ablest  men  in  the  nation  were 
engaged  in  the  controversy.  As  Provisions 
are  the  most  important  item  on  the  one  hand, 
and  Cotton  on   the  other,  we  shaU  use  these 


COTTON     IS    KING.  8i 

two  terms  as  the  representatives  of  the  two 
classes  of  products,  belonging,  respectively,  to 
fi-ee  labor  and  to  slave  labor. 

Mr.  Clay,  in  the  course  of  the  debate,  said : 
"What,  again,  I  would  ask,  is  the  cause  of 
the  unhappy  condition  of  oui'  country,  which 
I  have  faii'ly  depicted?  It  is  to  be  found  in 
the  fact  that,  during  almost  the  whole  existence 
of  this  government,  we  have  shaped  our  in- 
dustiy,  our  navigation,  and  our  commerce,  in 
reference  to  an  extraordinary  war  in  Europe, 
and  to  foreign  markets  which  no  longer  exist ; 
in  the  fact  that  we  have  depended  too  much  on 
foreign  som-ces  of  supply,  and  excited  too  little 
the  native ;  in  the  fact  that,  while  we  have 
cultivated,  with  assiduous  care,  our  foreign  re- 
sources, we  have  suffered  those  at  home  to 
wither,  in  a  state  of  neglect  and  abandonment. 
The  consequence  of  the  termination  of  the  war 
of  Europe,  has  been  the  resumption  of  Eu- 
ropean commerce,  European  navigation,  and 
the  extension  of  European  agricultm-e,  in  all 
its  branches.  Europe,  therefore,  has  no  longer 
occasion  for  anything  like  the  same  extent  as 


86  COTTON     IS     KING. 

that  which  she  had  during  her  wars,  for  Amer- 
ican commerce,  American  navigation,  the 
produce  of  American  industry.  Europe  in 
commotion,  and  convulsed  throughout  all  her 
members,  is  to  America  no  longer  the  same 
Em-ope  as  she  is  now,  ti-anquil,  and  watching 
with  the  most  vigilant  attention,  all  her  own 
peculiar  interests,  without  regard  to  their 
operation  on  us.  The  effect  of  this  altered 
state  of  Europe  upon  us,  has  been  to  circum- 
scribe the  employment  of  our  marine,  and 
greatly  to  reduce  the  value  of  the  produce  of 
our  ten-itorial  labor.  *  *  The  greatest  want 
of  civilized  society  is  a  market  for  the  sale  and 
exchange  of  the  surplus  of  the  products  of  the 
labor  of  its  members.  This  market  may  exist 
at  home  or  abroad,  or  both,  but  it  must  exist 
somewhere,  if  society  prospers  ;  and,  wherever 
it  does  exist,  it  should  be  competent  to  the 
absorption  of  the  entire  surplus  production. 
It  is  most  desirable  that  there  should  be  both  a 
home  and  a  foreign  market.  But  with  respect 
to  their  relative  superiority,  I  can  not  entertain 
a  doubt.     The  home  market  is  first  in  order, 


COTTONISKING.  Bt 

and  paramount  in  importance.  The  object  of 
the  bill  under  consideration,  is  to  create  this 
home  market,  and  to  lay  the  foundations  of  a 
genuine  American  policy.  It  is  opposed ;  and 
it  is  incumbent  on  the  partisans  of  the  foreign 
policy  (terms  which  I  shall  use  without  any 
invidious  intent)  to  demonsti-ate  that  the  for- 
eign market  is  an  adequate  vent  for  the  surplus 
produce  of  our  labor.  But  is  it  so?  1.  For- 
eign nations  can  not,  if  they  would,  take  our 
surplus  produce.  *  *  2.  K  they  could, 
they  would  not.  *  *  We  have  seen,  I 
think,  the  causes  of  the  distress  of  the  country. 
"We  have  seen  that  an  exclusive  dependence 
upon  the  foreign  market  must  lead  to  a  still 
severer  distress,  to  impoverishment,  to  ruin. 
"We  must,  then,  change  somewhat  our  course. 
"We  must  give  a  new  direction  to  some  portion 
of  our  industry.  "We  must  speedily  adopt  a 
genuine  American  policy.  Still  cherishing  a 
foreign  market,  let  us  create  also  a  home 
market,  to  give  further  scope  to  the  consump- 
tion of  the  produce  of  American  industry. 
Let  us  counteract  the  policy  of  foreigners,  and 


88  COTTON    IS     KING. 

withdraw  the  support  which  we  now  give  to 
their  industry,  and  stimulate  that  of  our  own 
country.  *  *  The  creation  of  a  home  mar- 
ket is  not  only  necessary  to  procure  for  our 
agriculture  a  just  reward  of  its  labors,  but  it 
is  indispensable  to  obtain  a  supply  of  our 
necessary  wants.  If  we  can  not  sell,  we  can 
not  buy.  That  portion  of  our  population  (and 
we  have  seen  that  it  is  not  less  than  four-fifths) 
which  makes  comparatively  nothing  that  for- 
eigners will  buy,  has  nothing  to  make  pur- 
chases with  from  foreigners.  It  is  in  vain  that 
we  are  told  of  the  amount  of  om-  exports,  sup- 
plied by  the  planting  interest.  They  may 
enable  the  planting  interest  to  supply  aU  its 
wants;  but  they  bring  no  ability  to  the  in- 
terests not  planting,  unless,  which  can  not 
be  pretended,  the  planting  interest  was  an 
adequate  vent  for  the  surplus  produce  of  all 
the  labor  of  all  other  interests.  *  *  But 
this  home  market,  highly  desirable  as  it  is,  can 
only  be  created  and  cherished  by  the  protec- 
tion of  our  own  legislation  against  the  inevi- 
table prosti'ation  of  our  industry,  which  must 


COTTON    IS     KING.  89 

ensue  from  the  action  of  foreign  policy  and 
legislation.  *  *  The  sole  object  of  the 
tariff  is  to  tax  the  produce  of  foreign  industry, 
with  the  view  of  promoting  American  in- 
dustiy.  *  *  But  it  is  said  by  the  honora- 
ble gentleman  from  Yirginia,  that  the  South, 
owing  to  the  character  of  a  certain  portion  of 
its  population,  can  not  engage  in  the  business 
of  manufacturing.  *  *  The  circumstances  of 
its  degradation  unfits  it  for  manufacturing  arts. 
The  well-being  of  the  other,  and  the  larger 
part  of  our  population,  requires  the  introduc- 
tion of  those  arts. 

"What  is  to  be  done  in  this  conflict?  The 
gentleman  would  have  us  abstain  from  adopt- 
ing a  policy  called  for  by  the  interests  of  the 
greater  and  freer  part  of  the  population.  But 
is  that  reasonable?  Can  it  be  expected  that 
the  interests  of  the  greater  part  should  be  made 
to  bend  to  the  condition  of  the  servile  part  of 
our  population?  That,  in  effect,  would  be  to 
make  us  the  slaves  of  slaves.  *  *  I  am  sure 
that  the  patriotism  of  the  South  may  be  ex- 
clusively relied  upon  to  reject  a  policy  which 
8 


90  COTTON    IS     KING. 

should  be  dictated  by  considerations  altogether 
connected  with  that  degraded  class,  to  the  pre- 
judice of  the  residue  of  our  population.  But 
does  not  a  perseverance  in  the  foreign  policy, 
as  it  now  exists,  in  fact,  make  all  parts  of  the 
Union,  not  planting,  tributary  to  the  planting 
parts?  What  is  the  argument?  It  is,  that  we 
must  continue  freely  to  receive  the  produce  of 
foreign  industry,  without  regard  to  the  protec- 
tion of  American  industry,  that  a  market  may 
be  retained  for  the  sale  abroad  of  the  produce 
of  the  planting  portion  of  the  country;  and 
that,  if  we  lessen  the  consumption,  in  all  parts 
of  America,  those  which  are  not  planting,  as 
well  as  the  planting  sections,  of  foreign  manu- 
factures, we  diminish  to  that  extent  the  foreign 
market  for  the  planting  produce.  The  existing 
state  of  things,  indeed,  presents  a  sort  of  tacit 
compact  between  the  cotton-grower  and  the 
British  manufacturer,  the  stipulations  of  which 
are,  on  the  part  of  the  cotton-grower,  that  the 
whole  of  the  United  States,  the  other  portions 
as  well  as  the  cotton-growing,  shall  remain 
opeil  and  unrestricted  in  the  consumption  of 


COTTON    IS    KING.  0t 

British  manufactures  ;  and,  on  the  part  of  the 
British  manufacturer,  that,  in  consideration 
thereof,  he  will  continue  to  purchase  the  cotton 
of  the  South.  Thus,  then,  we  perceive  that  the 
proposed  measure,  instead  of  sacrificing  the 
South  to  the  other  parts  of  the  Union,  seeks 
only  to  preserve  them  from  being  actually 
sacrificed  under  the  operation  of  the  tacit  com- 
pact which  I  have  described." 

The  opposition  to  the  Protective  Tarifi",  by 
the  South,  arose  from  two  causes:  the  first 
openly  avowed  at  the  time,  and  the  second 
clearly  deducible  fr-om  the  policy  it  pursued ; 
the  one  to  secure  the  foreign  market  for  its 
cotton,  the  other  to  obtain  a  bountiful  supply 
of  provisions  at  cheap  rates.  Cotton  was  ad- 
mitted free  of  duty  into  foreign  counti-ies,  and 
Southern  Statesmen  feared  its  exclusion,  if  our 
government  increased  the  duties  on  foreign 
fabrics.  The  South  exported  about  twice  as 
much  of  that  staple  as  was  supplied  to  Europe 
by  all  other  countries,  and  there  were  indica- 
tions   favoring    the   desire  it  entertained  of 


92  COTTON    IS    KING. 

monopolizing  the  foreign  markets.  The  West 
India  planters  could  not  import  food,  but  at 
such  high  rates  as  to  make  it  impracticable  to 
grow  cotton  at  prices  low  enough  to  suit  the 
English  manufacturer.  To  purchase  cotton 
cheaply,  was  essential  to  the  success  of  his 
scheme  of  monopolizing  its  manufacture,  and 
supplying  the  world  with  clothing.  The  close 
proximity  of  the  provision  and  cotton-growing 
districts  in  the  United  States,  gave  its  planters 
advantages  over  all  other  portions  of  the  world. 
But  they  could  not  monopolize  the  markets,  un- 
less they  could  obtain  a  cheap  supply  of  food  and 
clothing  for  their  negroes,  and  raise  their  cotton 
at  such  reduced  prices  as  to  undersell  their 
rivals.  A  manufacturing  population,  with  its 
mechanical  coadjutors,  in  the  midst  of  the  pro- 
vision-gi'owers,  on  a  scale  such  as  the  protective 
policy  contemplated,  it  was  conceived,  would 
create  a  permanent  market  for  their  products, 
and  enhance  the  price ;  whereas,  if  this  manu- 
facturing could  be  prevented,  and  a  system  of 
free  trade  adopted,  the  South  would  constitute 
the  principal  provision  market  of  the  country, 


COTTON    IS     KING.  do 

and  the  fertile  lands  of  the  North  supply  the 
cheap  food  demanded  for  its  slaves.  As  the 
tarifl"  policy,  in  the  outset,  contemplated  the 
encouragement  of  the  production  of  iron,  hemp, 
whisky,  and  the  establishment  of  woollen  man- 
ufactories, principally,  the  South  found  its  in- 
terests but  slightly  identified  with  the  system — 
the  coarser  qualities  of  cottons,  only,  being 
manufactured  in  the  country,  and,  even  these, 
on  a  diminished  scale,  as  compared  with  the 
cotton  crops  of  the  South.  Cotton,  up  to  the 
date  when  this  controversy  had  farely  com- 
menced, had  been  worth,  in  the  English  mar- 
ket, an  average  price  of  from  29t^o  to  48  o 
cents  per  lb.*  But  at  this  period,  a  wide- 
spread and  ruinous  depression,  both  in  the 
culture  and  manufacture  of  the  article,  oc- 
curred—  cotton,  in  1826,  having  fallen,  in 
England,  as  low  as  llj^o  to  18, V  cents  per  lb. 
The  home  market,  then,  was  too  inconsiderable 
to  be  of  much  importance,  and  there  existed 


»This  includes  the  period   from  1806  to  1826,  though 
the  decline  began  a  few  years  before  the  latter  date. 


94:  COTTON    IS     KING. 

little  hope  of  its  enlargement  to  the  extent 
demanded  by  its  increasing  cultivation.  The 
planters,  therefore,  looked  abroad  to  the  exist- 
ing markets,  rather  than  to  wait  for  tardily 
creating  one  at  home.  For  success  in  the 
foreign  markets,  they  relied,  mainly,  upon 
preparing  themselves  to  produce  cotton  at  the 
reduced  prices  then  prevailing  in  Europe.  All 
agricultural  products,  except  cotton,  being  ex- 
cluded from  foreign  markets,  the  planters  found 
themselves  almost  the  sole  exporters  of  the 
country ;  and  it  was  to  them  a  source  of  cha- 
grin, that  the  IsTorth  did  not,  at  once,  co-operate 
with  them  in  augmenting  the  commerce  of 
the  nation. 

At  this  point  in  the  history  of  the  contro- 
versy, politicians  found  it  an  easy  matter  to 
produce  feelings  of  the  deepest  hostility  be- 
tween the  opposing  parties.  The  planters  were 
led  to  believe  that  the  millions  of  revenue  col- 
lected off  the  goods  imported,  was  so  much 
deducted  from  the  value  of  the  cotton  that  paid 
for  them,  either  in  the  diminished  price  they 
received  abroad,  or  in  the  increased  price  which 


COTTON    IS    KING.  95 

the  J  paid  for  the  imported  articles.  To  enhance 
the  duties,  for  the  protection  of  our  manufac- 
tui*es,  they  were  persuaded,  would  be  so  much 
of  an  additional  tax  upon  themselves,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Korth ;  and,  beside,  to  give  the 
manufacturer  such  a  monopoly  of  the  home 
market  for  his  fabrics,  would  enable  him  to 
charge  purchasers  an  excess  over  the  true  value 
of  his  stufis,  to  the  whole  amount  of  the  duty. 
By  the  protective  policy,  the  planters  expected 
to  have  the  cost  of  both  provisions  and  clothing 
increased,  and  their  ability  to  monopolize  the 
foreign  markets  diminished  in  a  corresponding 
degi'ee.  If  they  could  establish  free  trade,  it 
would  insure  the  American  market  to  foreign 
manufacturers ;  secure  the  foreign  markets  for 
their  leading  staple;  repress  home  manufac- 
tures ;  force  a  larger  number  of  the  Northern 
men  into  agricultm^e;  multiply  the  growth, 
and  diminish  the  price  of  provisions ;  feed  and 
clothe  their  slaves  at  lower  rates;  produce 
their  cotton  for  a  third  or  fourth  of  former 
prices;  rival  all  other  countries  in  its  culti- 
vation;  monopolize  the  trade  in  the  article 


96  COTTON    IS     KING. 

throughout  the  whole  of  Europe ;  and  build  up 
a  commerce  and  a  navy  that  would  make  ua 
the  ruler  of  the  seas. 


CHAPTER   yil. 

To  understand  the  sentiments  of  the  South, 
on  the  Protective  Policy,  as  expressed  by  its 
statesmen,  we  must  again  quote  from  the  Con- 
gressional Debates  of  1824 : 

Mr.  Hayne,  of  South  Carolina,  said: 
"But  how,  I  would  seriously  ask,  is  it  pos- 
sible for  the  home  market  to  supply  the  place 
of  the  foreign  market,  for  our  cotton?  We 
supply  Great  Britain  with  the  raw  material,  out 
of  which  she  furnishes  the  Continent  of  Europe, 
nay,  the  whole  world,  with  cotton  goods.  Now, 
suppose  our  manufactories  could  make  every 
yard  of  cloth  we  consume,  that  would  furnish 
a  home  market  for  no  more  than  20,000,000 


COTTON    IS     KING.  97 

lbs.  out  of  the  180,000,000  lbs.  of  cotton  now 
shipped  to  Great  Britain  ;  leaving  on  our  hands 
160,000,000lbs.,  equal  to  two-thirds  of  ourwhole 
produce.  *  *  Considering  this  scheme  of 
promoting  certain  employments,  at  the  expense 
of  others,  as  unequal,  oppressive,  and  unjust — ■ 
viewing  prohibition  as  the  means^  and  the 
destruction  of  all  foreign  commerce  as  the  end 
of  this  policy — I  take  this  occasion  to  declare, 
that  we  shall  feel  om-selves  justified  in  em- 
bracing the  very  first  opportunity  of  repealing 
all  such  laws  as  may  be  passed  for  the  promo- 
tion of  these  objects." 

Mr.  Cahter,  of  South  Carolina,  said: 
"  Another  danger  to  which  the  present  measure 
would  expose  this  country,  and  one  in  which 
the  Southern  States  have  a  deep  and  vital 
interest,  would  be  the  risk  we  incm*,  by  this 
system  of  exclusion,  of  driving  Great  Britain 
to  countervailing  measures,  and  inducing  all 
other  countries,  with  whom  the  United  States 
have  any  considerable  trading  connections,  to 
resort  to  measm-es  of  retaliation.      There  are 

countries    possessing  vast   capacities    for  the 
9 


98  COTTON     IS     KING. 

production  of  rice,  of  cotton,  and  of  tobacco,  to 
which  England  might  resort  to  supply  herself. 
She  might  apply  herself  to  Brazil,  Bengal,  and 
Egypt,  for  her  cotton;  to  South  America,  as 
well  as  to  her  colonies,  for  her  tobacco ;  and  to 
China  and  Tm-key  for  her  rice." 

Mr.  Go  VAN,  of  South  Carolina,  said;  "The 
effect  of  this  measure  on  the  cotton,  rice,  and 
tobacco-growing  States,  will  be  pernicious  in 
the  extreme : — ^it  will  exclude  them  fi-om  those 
markets  where  they  depended  almost  entirely 
for  a  sale  of  those  articles,  and  force  Great 
Britain  to  encourage  the  cottons,  (Brazil,  Eio 
Janeiro,  and  Buenos  Ap-es,)  which,  in  a  short 
time,  can  be  brought  in  competition  with  us. 
Kothing  but  the  consumption  of  British  goods 
in  this  country,  received  in  exchange,  can  sup- 
port a  command  of  the  cotton  market  to  the 
Southern  planter.  It  is  one  thing  very  certain, 
she  will  not  come  here  with  her  gold  and 
silver  to  trade  with  us.  And  should  Great 
Britain,  pursuing  the  principles  of  her  recip- 
rocal duty  act,  of  last  June,  lay  three  or  four 
cents  on  our  cotton,  where  would,  I  ask,  be  our 


COTTON    IS    KING.  99 

surplus  of  cotton?  It  is  well  known  that  the 
United  States  can  not  manufacture  one-fourth 
of  the  cotton  that  is  in  it ;  and  should  we,  by 
our  imprudent  legislative  enactments,  in  pur- 
suing to  such  an  extent  this  restrictive  system, 
force  Great  Britain  to  shut  her  ports  against  u8, 
it  will  paralyze  the  whole  trade  of  the  Southern 
country.  This  export  ti'ade,  which  composes 
five-sixths  of  the  export  ti-ade  of  the  United 
States,  will  be  swept  entirely  from  the  ocean, 
and  leave  but  a  melancholy  wi-eck  behind." 

It  is  necessary,  also,  to  add  a  few  additional 
exti-acts,  from  the  speeches  of  Northern  states- 
men, during  this  discussion. 

Mr.  Martindale,  of  Kew  York,  said :  "  Does 
not  the  agriculture  of  the  country  languish,  and 
the  laborer  stand  stiU,  because,  beyond  the 
supply  of  food  for  his  own  family,  his  produce 
perishes  on  his  hands,  or  his  fields  lie  waste 
and  faUow;  and  this  because  his  accustomed 
market  is  closed  against  him  ?  It  does  sir. 
*  *  A  twenty  years'  war  in  Europe,  which 
drew  into  its  vortex  all  its  various  nations, 
made   our  merchants  the  carriers  of  a  large 


100  COTTON    IS    KING. 

portion  of  the  world,  and  our  farmers  the 
feeders  of  immense  belligerent  armies.  An 
unexampled  activity  and  increase  in  our  com- 
merce followed — our  agriculture  extended  itself, 
grew  and  flourished.  An  unprecedented  de- 
mand gave  the  farmer  an  exti-aordinary  price 
for  his  produce.  *  *  Imports  kept  pace 
with  exports,  and  consumption  with  both.  *  * 
Peace  came  into  Europe,  and  shut  out  our 
exports,  and  found  us  in  war  with  England, 
which  almost  cut  off  our  imports.  *  * 
Now  we  felt  how  coinfortable  it  was  to  have 
plenty  of  food,  but  no  clothing.  *  *  !N'ow 
we  felt  the  imperfect  organization  of  our  sys- 
tem. Now  we  saw  the  imperfect  distribution 
and  classification  of  labor.  *  *  Here  is  the 
explanation  of  our  opposite  views.  It  is  em- 
ployment, after  all,  that  we  are  all  in  search  of. 
It  is  a  market  for  our  labor  and  our  produce, 
which  we  all  want,  and  aU  contend  for.  '  Buy 
foreign  goods,  that  we  may  import,'  say  the 
merchants :  it  wiU  make  a  market  for  importa- 
tions, and  find  employment  for  our  ships. 
Buy  English    manufactures,    say  the    cotton 


COTTON    IS    KING.  101 

planters;  England  will  take  onr  cotton  in 
exchange.  Thus  the  merchant  and  the  cotton 
planter  fully  appreciate  the  value  of  a  market 
when  they  find  their  own  encroached  upon. 
The  farmer  and  manufacturer  claim  to  par- 
ticipate in  the  benefits  of  a  market  for  their 
labor  and  produce ;  and  hence  this  protracted 
debate  and  struggle  of  contending  interests. 
It  is  a  contest  for  a  market  between  the  cotton- 
groxoer  and  the  mercliant  on  the  one  side,  and 
the  farmer  and  the  manufacturer  on  the 
other.  That  the  manufacturer  would  fui-nish 
this  market  to  the  farmer,  admits  no  doubt. 
The  farmer  should  reciprocate  the  favor ;  and 
government  is  now  called  upon  to  render  this 
market  accessible  to  foreign  fabrics  for  the 
mutual  benefit  of  both.  *  *  This,  then,  is 
the  remedy  we  propose,  sir,  for  the  evils  which 
we  sufier.  Place  the  mechanic  by  the  side  of 
the  farmer,  that  the  manufacturer  who  makes 
our  cloth,  should  make  it  from  our  farmers' 
wool,  flax,  hemp,  etc.,  and  be  fed  by  om^ 
farmers'  provisons.  Draw  forth  our  iron  fi'om 
our  own  mountains,  and  we  shall   not  drain 


102  COTTON    IS    KING. 

our  country  in  the  purchase  of  the  foreign.  *  * 
We  propose,  sir,  to  supply  our  own  wants  from 
our  own  resources,  by  the  means  which  God  and 
Natm'e  have  placed  in  our  hands.  *  *  But 
here  is  a  question  of  sectional  interest,  which 
elicits  unfriendly  feelings  and  determined 
hostility  to  the  bill.  *  *  The  cotton,  rice, 
tobacco,  and  indigo-growers  of  the  Southern 
States,  claim  to  be  deeply  affected  and  injured 
by  this  system.  *  *  Let  us  inquire  if  the 
Southern  planter  does  not  demand  what,  in 
fact,  he  denies  to  others.  And  now,  what 
does  he  request?  That  the  Korth  and  West 
should  buy — what?  Not  their  cotton,  tobacco, 
etc.,  for  that  we  do  already,  to  the  utmost  of 
our  ability  to  consume,  or  pay,  or  vend  to 
others;  and  that  is  to  an  immense  amount, 
greatly  exceeding  what  they  pm'chase  of  us. 
But  they  insist  that  we  should  buy  Enghsh 
wool,  wi'ought  into  cloth,  that  they  may  pay 
for  it  with  their  cotton;  that  we  should  buy 
Russia  iron,  that  they  may  sell  their  cotton ; 
that  we  should  buy  Holland  gin  and  linen, 
that  they  may  sell  their  tobacco.     In  fine,  that 


COTTON     IS     KING  103 

we  should  not  grow  wool,  and  dig  and  smelt  the 
iron  of  the  country ;  for,  if  we  did,  they  could 
not  sell  their  cotton."  [On  another  occasion, 
he  said:]  "Gentlemen  say  they  will  oppose 
every  part  of  the  bill.  They  will,  therefore, 
move  to  strike  out  every  part  of  it.  And,  on 
every  such  motion,  we  shall  hear  repeated,  as 
we  have  done  already,  the  same  objections: 
that  it  will  ruin  trade  and  commerce ;  that  it 
will  destroy  the  revenue,  and  prostrate  the 
navy;  that  it  will  enhance  the  prices  of  arti- 
cles of  the  first  necessity,  and  thus  be  taxing 
the  poor;  and  that  it  will  destroy  the  cotton 
market,  and  stop  the  future  growth  of  cotton. '^'^ 
Mk.  Buchanan,  of  Pennsylvania,  said :  "  iS'o 
nation  can  be  perfectly  independent  which  de- 
pends upon  foreign  countries  for  its  supply  of 
iron.  It  is  an  article  equally  necessary  in 
peace  and  in  war.  Without  a  plentiful  supply 
of  it,  we  can  not  provide  for  the  common  de- 
fense. Can  we  so  soon  have  forgotton  the 
lesson  which  experience  taught  us  during  the 
late  war  with  Great  Britain?  Our  foreign 
supply   was   then   cut   ofi",  and  we  could  not 


104:  COTTON     IS     KING. 

manufacture  in  sufficient  quantities  for  the 
increased  domestic  demand.  The  price  of  the 
article  became  extravagant,  and  both  the  Gov- 
ernment and  the  agriculturist  were  compelled 
to  pay  double  the  sum  for  which  they  might 
have  purchased  it,  had  its  manufacture,  before 
that  period,  been  encouraged  by  proper  pro- 
tecting duties." 

Sugar  cane,  at  that  period,  had  become  an 
article  of  culture  in  Louisiana,  and  efforts  were 
made  to  persuade  her  planters  into  the  adop- 
tion of  the  Free  Trade  system.  It  was  m-ged 
that  they  could  more  effectually  resist  foreign 
competition,  and  extend  their  business,  by  a 
cheap  supply  of  food,  than  by  protective  duties. 
But  the  Louisianians  were  too  wise  not  to  know, 
that  though  they  would  certainly  obtain  cheap 
provisions  by  the  destruction  of  Northern  man- 
ufactures, still,  this  would  not  enable  them  to 
compete  with  the  cheaper  labor  supplied  by 
the  slave  trade  to  the  Cubans. 

The  West,  for  many  years,  gave  its  undi- 
vided support  to  the  manufacturing  interests, 
thereby  obtaining  a  heavy  duty  on  hemp,  wool, 


COTTON    IS     KING.  105 

and  foreign  distilled  spirits :  thus  securing  en- 
couragement to  its  hemp  and  wool-growers, 
and  the  monopoly  of  the  home  market  for  its 
whisky.  The  distiller  and  the  manufacturer, 
under  this  system,  were  equally  ranked  as 
public  benefactors,  as  each  increased  the  con- 
sumption of  the  surplus  products  of  the  farmer. 
The  grain  of  the  West  could  find  no  remunera- 
tive market,  except  as  fed  to  domestic  animals 
for  droving  East  and  South,  or  distilled  into 
whisky  which  would  bear  transportation.  Take 
a  fact  in  proof  of  this  assertion.  Hon.  Henry 
Baldwin,  of  Pittsburgh,  at  a  public  dinner 
given  him  by  the  friends  of  General  Jackson, 
in  Cincinnati,  May,  1828,  in  referring  to  the 
want  of  markets,  for  the  farmers  of  the  West, 
said,  "  He  was  certain,  the  aggregate  of  their 
agricultural  produce,  finding  a  market  in  Eu- 
rope, would  not  pay  for  the  pins  and  needles 
they  imported." 

The  markets  in  the  Southwest,  now  so 
important,  were  then  quite  limited.  As  the 
protective  system,  coupled  with  the  contem- 
plated internal   improvements,  if  successfully 


106  COTTON     IS     KING. 

accomplished,  would  inevitably  tend  to  en- 
hance the  price  of  agricultural  products ;  while 
the  free  trade  and  anti-internal  improvement 
policy,  would  as  certainly  reduce  their  value ; 
the  two  systems  were  long  considered  so  an- 
tagonistic, that  the  success  of  the  one  must 
sound  the  knell  of  the  other.  Indeed,  so  fully 
was  Ohio  impressed  with  the  necessity  of  pro- 
moting manufactures,  that  all  capital  thus  em- 
ployed, was  for  many  years  entirely  exempt 
fr'om  taxation. 

It  was  in  vain  that  the  friends  of  protection 
appealed  to  the  fact,  that  the  duties  levied  on 
foreign  goods  did  not  necessarily  enhance  their 
cost  to  the  consumer;  that  the  competition 
among  home  manufacturers,  and  between  them 
and  foreigners,  had  greatly  reduced  the  price 
of  nearly  every  article  properly  protected ;  that 
foreign  manufacturers  always  had,  and  alwaj^s 
would  advance  their  prices  according  to  om* 
dependence  upon  them ;  that  domestic  compe- 
tition was  the  only  safety  the  country  had 
against  foreign  imposition ;  that  it  was  neces- 
sary we  should  become  our  own  manufacturerg, 


COTTON    IS     KING.  107 

in  a  fair  degree,  to  render  ourselves  independ- 
ent of  other  nations  in  times  of  war,  as  well  as 
to  guard  against  the  yascillations  in  foreign 
legislation ;  that  the  South  would  be  vastly  the 
gainer  by  having  the  market  for  its  products  at 
its  own  doors,  to  avoid  the  cost  of  their  transit 
across  the  Atlantic ;  that,  in  the  event  of  the 
repression  or  want  of  proper  extension  of  our 
manufactures,  by  the  adoj)tion  of  the  fi-ee  ti-ade 
system,  the  imports  of  foreign  goods,  to  meet 
the  public  wants,  would  soon  exceed  the  ability 
of  the  people  to  pay,  and,  inevitably,  involve 
the  countiy  in  bankruptcy. 

Southern  politicians  remained  inflexible, 
and  refused  to  accept  any  policy  except  free 
ti'ade,  to  the  utter  abandonment  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  protection.  Whether  they  were  jealous 
of  the  greater  prosperity  of  the  Xorth,  and  de- 
sirous to  cripple  its  energies,  or  whether  they 
were  truly  fearful  of  bankrupting  the  South,  we 
shall  not  wait  to  inquire.  Justice  demands, 
however,  that  we  should  state  that  the  South 
was  suffering  from  the  stagnation  in  the  cot- 
ton trade  existing  throughout   Europe.     The 


108  COTTON    IS    KING. 

planters  had  been  unused  to  the  low  prices,  for 
that  staple,  they  were  compelled  to  accept. 
They  had  no  prospect  of  an  adequate  home 
market  for  many  years  to  come,  and  there  were 
indications  that  they  might  lose  the  one  they 
abeady  possessed.  The  West  Indies  was  still 
slave  territory,  and  attempting  to  recover  its 
early  position  in  the  English  market.  This  it 
had  to  do,  or  be  forced  into  emancipation. 
The  powerful  Yiceroy  of  Egypt,  Mehemet  Ali, 
was  endeavoring  to  compel  his  subjects  to  grow 
cotton  on  an  enlarged  scale.  The  newly 
organized  South  American  republics  were 
assuming  an  aspect  of  commercial  conse- 
quence, and  might  commence  its  cultivation. 
The  East  Indies  and  Brazil  were  supplying  to 
Great  Britain  from  one-third  to  one-half  of  the 
cotton  she  was  annually  manufacturing.  The 
other  half,  or  two-thirds,  she  might  obtain  from 
other  sources,  and  repudiate  all  traffic  with 
our  planters.  Southern  men,  therefore,  could 
not  conceive  of  anything  but  ruin  to  them- 
selves, by  any  considerable  advance  in  duties 
on  foreign  imports.     They  understood  the  pro- 


COTTON    IS    KING.  109 

tective  policy  as  contemplating  the  supply  of 
om-  country  with  home  manufactured  arti- 
cles to  the  exclusion  of  those  of  foreign 
coimtiies.  This  would  confine  the  planters, 
in  the  sale  of  their  cotton,  to  the  American 
market  mainly,  and  leave  them  in  the  power 
of  moneyed  corporations;  which  possessing 
the  ability,  might  conti'ol  the  prices  of  their 
staple,  to  the  irreparable  injury  of  the  South. 
"With  slave  labor  they  could  not  become  manu- 
facturers, and  must,  therefore,  remain  at  the 
mercy  of  the  Korth,  both  as  to  food  and 
clothing,  unless  the  European  markets  should 
be  retained.  Out  of  this  conviction  grew  the 
war  upon  Corporations;  the  hostility  to  the 
employment  of  foreign  capital  in  developing 
the  mineral,  agricultural,  and  manufacturing 
resources  of  the  country ;  the  efforts  to  destroy 
the  banks  and  the  credit  system  ;  the  attempts 
to  reduce  the  currency  to  gold  and  silver ;  the 
system  of  collecting  the  public  revenues  in 
coin;  the  withdrawal  of  the  public  moneys 
from  all  banks  as  a  basis  of  paper  circulation ; 
and  the  sleepless  vigilance  of  the  South  in 


110  COTTON    IS     KING. 

resisting  all  systems  of  internal  improvements 
by  the  General  Government.  Its  statesmen 
foresaw  that  a  paper  currency  would  keep  up 
the  price  of  Northern  products  one  or  two 
hundred  per  cent,  above  the  specie  standard ; 
that  combinations  of  capitalists,  whether  en- 
gaged in  manufacturing  wool,  cotton,  or  iron, 
would  draw  off  labor  from  the  cultivation  of  the 
soil,  and  cause  large  bodies  of  the  producers  to 
become  consumers ;  and  that  roads  and  canals, 
connecting  the  "West  with  the  East,  were  effec- 
tual means  of  bringing  the  agricultural  and 
manufacturing  classes  into  closer  proximity,  to 
the  serious  limitation  of  the  foreign  commerce 
of  the  country,  the  checking  of  the  growth  of 
the  navy,  and  the  manifest  injury  of  the 
planters. 


CHAPTER   YIII. 

The  PKOTECTm:  Tariff  and  Free  Trade 
controversy,  at  its  origin,  and  during  its  prog- 
ress, was  very  different  in  its  character  from 
what  many  now  imagine  it  to  have  been. 
People,  on  both  sides,  were  oflen  in  great  straits 
to  know  how  to  obtain  a  livelihood,  much  less 
to  amass  fortunes.  The  word  ruin  was  no 
unmeaning  phrase  at  that  day.  The  news,  now, 
that  a  bank  has  failed,  carries  with  it,  to  the 
depositors  and  holders  of  its  notes,  no  stronger 
feelings  of  consternation,  than  did  the  report 
of  the.  passage  or  repeal  of  tariff  laws,  then, 
affect  the  minds  of  the  opposing  parties.  We 
have  spoken  of  the  peculiar  condition  of  the 
South  in  this  respect.  In  the  West,  for  many 
years,  the  farmers  often  received  no  more  than 
tvjenty-five  cents ^  and  rarely  over  forty  cents ^ 
per  pushel  for  their  wheat,  after  conveying  it, 

on  horseback,  or  in  wagons,  not  unfrequently, 

111 


112  COTTON    IS     KING. 

a  distance  of  fifty  miles,  to  find  a  market. 
Other  products  were  proportionally  low  in 
price ;  and  such  was  the  difficulty  in  obtaining 
money,  that  people  could  not  pay  their  taxes 
but  with  the  greatest  sacrifices.  So  deeply 
were  the  people  interested  in  these  questions 
of  national  policy,  that  they  became  the  basis 
of  political  action  during  several  Presidential 
elections.  This  led  to  much  vacillation  in 
legislation  on  the  subject,  and  gave  alternately, 
to  one  and  then  to  the  other  section  of  the 
Union,  the  benefits  of  its  favorite  policy. 

The  vote  of  the  West,  during  this  struggle, 
was  of  the  first  importance,  as  it  possessed  the 
balance  of  power,  and  could  turn  the  scale  at 
will.  It  was  not  left  without  inducements  to 
co-operate  with  the  South,  in  its  measures  for 
extending  slavery,  that  it  might  create  a  mar- 
ket among  the  planters  for  its  products.  This 
appears  from  the  particular  eflbrts  made  by  the 
Southern  members  of  Congress,  during  the 
debate  of  1824,  to  win  over  the  West  to  the 
doctrines  of  free  trade. 


COTTON    IS     KING.  113 

Mr.  McDuFFiE,  of  South  Carolina,  said: 
"  I  admit  that  the  "Western  people  are  emhar- 
rassed^  but  I  deny  that  they  are  distressed^  in 
any  other  sense  of  the  word.  *  *  I  am 
well  assured  that  the  permanent  prosperity  of 
the  "West  depends  more  upon  the  improvement 
of  the  means  of  ti-ansporting  their  produce  to 
market,  and  of  receiving  the  returns,  than  upon 
every  other  subject  to  which  the  legislation  of 
this  government  can  be  directed.  *  *  Gen- 
tlemen (from  the  West)  are  aware  that  a 
very  profitable  trade  is  carried  on  by  their 
constituents  with  the  Southern  country,  in 
live  stock  of  all  descriptions,  which  they  drive 
over  the  mountains  and  sell  for  cash.  This 
extensive  ti-ade,  which,  fi-om  its  pecuhar 
character,  more  easily  overcomes  the  difficul- 
ties of  transportation  than  any  that  can  be  sub- 
stituted in  its  place,  is  about  to  be  put  in  jeop- 
ardy for  the  conjectural  benefits  of  this  measure. 
"When  I  say  this  trade  is  about  to  be  put  in  jeop- 
ardy, I  do  not  speak  unadvisedly.  I  am  per- 
fectly convinced  that,  if  this  bill  passes,  it  will 

have  the  effect  of  inducing  the  people  of  the 
10 


114:  COTTON    IS    KING. 

South,  partly  from  the  feeling  and  partly  from 
the  necessity  growing  out  of  it,  to  raise  within 
themselves,  the  live  stock  which  they  now 
pm-chase  fi-om  the  West.  *  *  If  we  cease 
to  take  the  manufactures  of  Great  Britain,  she 
will  assuredly  cease  to  take  our  cotton  to  the 
same  extent.  It  is  a  settled  principle  of  her 
policy — a  principle  not  only  wise,  but  essential 
to  her  existence — to  purchase  from  those  nations 
that  receive  her  manufactures,  in  preference  to 
those  who  do  not.  We  have,  heretofore,  been 
her  best  customers,  and,  therefore,  it  has  been 
her  policy  to  purchase  our  cotton  to  the  frill 
extent  of  our  demand  for  her  manufactures. 
But,  say  gentlemen,  Great  Britain  does  not 
purchase  your  cotton  fi-om  affection,  but  from 
interest.  I  grant  it,  sir ;  and  that  is  the  very 
reason  of  my  decided  hostility  to  a  system 
which  wiU  make  it  her  interest  to  purchase 
from  other  countries  in  preference  to  our  own. 
It  ie  her  interest  to  purchase  cotton,  even  at  a 
higher  price,  from  those  countries  which  receive 
her  manufactm-es  in  exchange.  It  is  better  for 
her  to  give  a  little  more  for  cotton,  than  to 


COTTON    IS    KING.  115 

obtain  nothing  for  her  manufactures.  It  will 
be  remarked  that  the  situation  of  Great  Britain 
is,  in  this  respect,  widely  diflferent  from  that 
of  the  United  States.  The  powers  of  her  soil 
have  been  already  pushed  very  nearly  to  the 
maximum  of  their  productiveness.  The  pro- 
ductiveness of  her  manufactui'es  on  the  con- 
trary, is  as  unlimited  as  the  demand  of  the 
whole  world.  *  *  In  fact,  sir,  the  poHcy  of 
Great  Britain  is  not,  as  gentlemen  seem  to 
suppose,  to  secure  the  Jioyne^  but  the  foreign 
market  for  her  manufactures.  The  former  she 
has  without  an  effort.  It  is  to  attain  the  latter 
that  all  her  poKcy  and  enterprise  are  brought 
into  requisition.  The  manufactures  of  that 
country  are  the  'basis  of  tier  commerce;  our 
manufactures,  on  the  conti-ary,  are  to  be  the 
destruction  of  our  commerce.  *  *  It  can 
not  be  doubted  that,  in  pursuance  of  the  policy 
of  forcing  her  manufacturers  into  foreign  mar- 
kets, she  will,  if  deprived  of  a  large  portion  of 
our  custom,  direct  aU  her  efforts  to  South 
America.  That  country  abounds  in  a  soil 
admirably  adapted  to  the  production  of  cotton, 


116  COTTON    IS     KING. 

and  will,  for  a  century  to  come,  import  her 
manufactm-es  from  foreign  countries." 

Mr.  EUmilton,  of  South.  Carolina,  said; 
"That  the  planters  in  his  section  shared  in 
that  depression  which  is  common  in  every  de- 
partment of  the  industry  of  the  Union,  except- 
ing tliose  from  wliich  we  have  heard  the  most 
Glamor  for  relief.  This  would  be  understood 
when  it  was  known  that  sea-island  cotton  had 
fallen  fi*om  50  or  60  cents,  to  25  cents — a  fall 
even  greater  than  that  which  has  attended 
wheat,  of  which  we  had  heard  so  much — as  if 
the  grain-growing  section  was  the  only  agri- 
cultural interest  which  had  suffered.  *  * 
While  the  planters  of  this  region  do  not  dread 
competition  in  the  foreign  markets  on  equal 
terms,  fi-om  the  superiority  of  their  cotton,  they 
entertain  a  well-founded  apprehension,  that  the 
restrictions  contemplated  will  lead  to  retal- 
iatory duties  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain, 
which  must  end  in  ruin.  *  *  In  relation  to 
our  upland  cottons.  Great  Britain  may,  without 
difficulty,  in  the  course  of  a  very  short  period, 
supply  her  wants  from  Brazil.     *     *     How 


COTTON    IS     KING.  117 

long  tlie  exclusive  production,  even  of  the  sea- 
island  cotton,  will  remain  to  oui*  countiy,  is 
yet  a  doubtful  and  interesting  problem.  The 
experiments  that  are  making  on  the  Delta  of 
the  Mle,  if  pushed  to  the  Ocean,  may  result  in 
the  production  of  this  beautiful  staple,  in  an 
abundance  which,  in  reference  to  other  produc- 
tions, has  long  blest  and  consecrated  Egyptian 
fertility.  *  *  We  are  told  by  the  honorable 
Speaker  (Mr.  Clay,)  that  our  manufacturing 
establishments  will,  in  a  very  short  period, 
supply  the  place  of  the  foreign  demand.  The 
futility,  I  will  not  say  mockery  of  this  hope, 
may  be  measured  by  one  or  two  facts.  First, 
the  present  consumption  of  cotton,  by  our 
manufactories,  is  about  equal  to  one-sixth  of 
our  whole  production.  *  *  How  long  it 
will  take  to  increase  these  manufactories  to  a 
scale  equal  to  the  consumption  of  this  produc- 
tion, he  could  not  venture  to  determine;  but 
that  it  will  be  some  years  after  the  epitaph  will 
have  been  written  on  the  fortunes  of  the  South, 
there  can  be  but  little  doubt."  *  *  [After 
speaking  of  the  tendency  of  increased  mann- 


118  COTTON    IS    KING. 

factures  in  the  East,  to  check  emigration  to  the 
"West,  and  thus  to  diminish  the  value  of  the 
public  lands  and  prevent  the  growth  of  the 
Western  States,  Mr.  H.  proceeded  thus :]  "  That 
portion  of  the  Union  could  participate  in  no 
part  of  the  bill,  except  in  its  burdens,  in  spite 
of  the  fallacious  hopes  that  were  cherished,  in 
reference  to  cotton-bagging  for  Kentucky,  and 
the  woolen  duty  for  Steubenville,  Ohio.  He 
feared  that  to  the  entire  region  of  the  West, 
no  '  cordial  drops  of  comfort '  would  come,  even 
in  the  duty  on  foreign  spirits.  To  a  large  por- 
tion of  our  people,  who  are  in  the  habit  of 
solacing  themselves  with  Hollands,  Antigua, 
and  Cogniac,  whisky,  would  still  have  '  a  most 
villainous  twang.'  The  cup,  he  feared,  would 
be  refused,  though  tendered  by  the  hand  of 
patriotism  as  well  as  conviviality.  No,  the 
West  has  but  one  interest,  and  that  is,  that 
its  best  customer,  the  South,  should  be  pros- 
perous." 

Mr.  Rankin,  of  Mississippi,  said:  "With 
the  West,  it  appears  to  me  like  a  rel^ellion  of 
the  members  against  the  body.     It  is  true,  we 


COTTON    IS     KING.  119 

export,  but  the  aniount  received  from  those 
exports  is  only  apparently,  largely  in  our 
favor,  inasmuch  as  we  are  the  consumers  of 
your  produce,  dependent  on  you  for  our  imple- 
ments of  husbandry,  the  means  of  sustaining 
life,  and  almost  everything  except  our  lands 
and  negroes;  all  of  which  draws  much  fi'om 
the  apparent  profits  and  advantages.  In  pro- 
portion as  you  diminish  our  exportations,  you 
diminish  om*  means  of  purchasing  fi*om  yon, 
and  desti'oy  your  own  market.  You  will  com- 
pel us  to  use  those  advantages  of  soil  and  of 
climate  which  God  and  ITature  have  placed 
within  our  reach,  and  to  live,  as  to  you,  as  you 
desire  us  to  live  as  to  foreign  nations — de- 
pendent on  our  own  resources." 

Mr.  Gaknett,  of  Virginia,  said:  "The 
Western  States  can  not  manufacture.  The 
want  of  capital  (of  which  they,  as  well  as  the 
Southern  States,  have  been  drained  by  the 
policy  of  government,)  and  other  causes  render 
it  impossible.  The  Southern  States  are  des- 
tined to  sufier  more  by  this  policy  than  any 
other — ^the  Western  next ;  but  it  will  not  benefit 


120  COTTON    IS     KING. 

the  aggregate  population  of  any  State.  It  is  for 
the  benefit  of  capitalists  only.  If  persisted  in, 
it  will  drive  the  South  to  ruin  and  resistance." 
Mi\  CuTHBEKT,  of  Georgia,  said:  "He  hoped 
the  market  for  the  cotton  of  the  South  was  not 
about  to  be  contracted  within  a  little  miserable 
sphere,  [the  home  market,]  instead  of  being 
spread  throughout  the  world.  K  they  should 
drive  the  cotton-growers  from  the  only  source 
from  whence  their  means  were  derived,  [the 
foreign  market,]  they  would  be  unable  any 
longer  to  take  their  supplies  from  the  West— 
they  must  contract  their  concerns  within  their 
own  spheres,  and  begin  to  raise  flesh  and  grain 
for  their  own  consumption.  The  South  was 
already  under  a  severe  pressure  —  if  this 
measure  went  into  eflect,  its  distress  would  be 
consummated." 

In  1828,  the  West  found  still  very  limited 
means  of  communication  with  the  East.  The 
opening  of  the  New  York  canal,  in  1825, 
created  a  means  of  traflic  with  the  seaboard,  to 
the  people  of  the  Lake  region ;  but  all  of  the 


COTTON    IS     KING.  121 

remaining  territorj,  west  of  the  Alleghanies, 
had  gained  no  advantages  over  those  it  had 
enjoyed  in  IS^^t,  except  so  far  as  steamboat 
navigation  had  progressed  on  the  Western 
rivers.  In  the  debate  preceding  the  passage 
of  the  tariff"  in  1828,  usually  termed  the 
"Woolens'  Bill,"  allusion  is  made  to  the  con- 
dition of  the  West,  from  which  we  quote  as 
follows : 

Mr.  WicKLiFFE,  of  Kentucky,  said:  "My 
constituents  may  be  said  to  be  a  grain-growing 
people.  They  raise  stock,  and  their  surplus 
grain  is  converted  into  spirits.  Where,  I  ask, 
is  our  market  ?  *  *  Our  market  is  where 
our  sympathies  should  be,  in  the  South.  Our 
com'se  of  trade,  for  all  heavy  articles,  is  down 
the  Mississippi.  What  breadstuff's  we  find  a 
market  for,  are  principally  consumed  in  the 
States  of  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  South  Ala- 
bama, and  Florida.  Indeed,  I  may  say,  these 
States  are  the  consumers,  at  miserable  and 
ruinous  prices  to  the  farmers  of  my  State,  of 
our  exports  of  spirits,  corn,  flour,  and  cured 

provisions.     *     *     We  have  had  a  trade  of 
11 


122  COTTON    IS     KING. 

some  value  to  the  South  in  our  stock.  We 
still  continue  it  under  great  disadvantages.  It 
is  a  ready-money  trade — ^I  may  say  it  is  the 
only  money  trade  in  which  we  are  engaged. 
*  *  Are  the  gentlemen  acquainted  with  the 
extent  of  that  trade  ?  It  may  be  fairly  stated 'at 
three  millions  per  annum." 

Ml'.  Benton  urged  the  Western  members 
to  unite  with  the  South,  "for  the  purpose  of 
enlarging  the  market,  increasing  the  demand 
in  the  South,  and  its  ability  to  purchase  the 
horses,  mules,  and  provisions,  which  the  West 
could  sell  nowhere  else." 

The  tariff  of  1828,  created  great  dissatisfac- 
tion at  the  South.  Examples  of  the  expres- 
sions of  public  sentiment,  on  the  subject, 
adopted  at  conventions,  and  on  other  occa- 
sions, might  be  multiplied  indefinitely.  Take 
a  case  or  two,  to  illustrate  the  whole.  At  a 
public  meeting  in  Georgia,  held  subsequently 
to  the  passage  of  the  "Woolens'  Bill,"  the  fol- 
lowing resolution  was  adopted : 

Resolved,  That  to  retaliate    as  far  as    possible    upon 
our  oppressors,  our    Legislature  be  requested  to  impose 


COTTON    IS     KIXG.  123 

taxes,  amounting  to  prohibition,  on  the  hogs,  horses,  mules, 
and  cotton-bagging,  whisky,  pork,  beef,  bacon,  flax,  and 
hemp  cloth,  of  the  Western,  and  on  all  the  productions  and 
manufactm-es  of  the  Eastern  and  N'orthei-n  States. 

Mr.  Hamilton,  of  South  Carolina,  in  a 
speech  at  the  Waterboroiigh  Dinner,  given 
subsequently  to  the  passage  of  the  tariff  of 
1828,  said : 

"It  becomes  us  to  inquire  what  is  to  be  our 
situation  under  this  unexpected  and  disastrous 
conjunction  of  circumstances,  which,  in  its 
progress,  will  deprive  us  of  the  benefits  of  a 
free  trade  with  the  rest  of  the  world,  which 
formed  one  of  the  leading  objects  of  the 
Union.  Why,  gentlemen,  ruin,  unmitigated 
ruin,  must  be  our  portion,  if  this  system  con- 
tinues. *  *  From  1816  down  to  the  present 
time,  the  South  has  been  drugged,  by  the  slow 
poison  of  the  miserable  empiricism  of  the  pro- 
hibitory system,  the  fatal  effects  of  which  we 
could  not  so  long  have  resisted,  but  for  the 
stupendously  valuable  staples  with  which  God 
has  blessed  us,  and  the  agricultural  skill  and 
enterprise  of  our  people." 


124  COTTON     IS     KING. 

In  ftirther  illustration  of  the  nature  of  this 
controversy,  and  of  the  arguments  used  during 
the  contest,  we  must  give  the  substance  of  the 
remarks  of  a  prominent  politician,  who  was 
aiming  at  detaching  the  sugar  planters  from 
their  political  connection  with  the  manufac- 
turers. We  have  to  rely  on  memory,  however, 
as  we  can  not  find  the  record  of  the  language 
used  on  the  occasion.  It  was  published  at  the 
time,  and  commented  on,  freely,  by  the  news- 
papers at  the  Xorth.  He  said:  "We  must 
prevent  the  increase  of  manufactories,  force 
the  surplus  labor  into  agriculture,  promote  the 
cultivation  of  our  unimproved  western  lands, 
until  provisions  are  so  multiplied  and  reduced 
in  price,  that  the  slave  can  be  fed  so  cheaply 
as  to  enable  us  to  grow  our  sugar  at  three 
cents  a  pound.  Then,  without  protective 
duties,  we  can  rival  Cuba  in  the  production  of 
that  staple,  and  drive  her  from  our  markets." 


CHAPTEK  IX. 

The  opening  of  the  year  1832,  found  the 
parties  to  the  Tariff  controversy  once  more 
engaged  in  earnest  debate,  on  the  floor  of  Con- 
gress ;  and  midsummer  witnessed  the  passage 
of  a  new  Bill,  including  the  principle  of  pro- 
tection. This  Act  produced  a  crisis  in  the 
controversy,  and  led  to  the  movements  in 
South  Carolina  toward  secession;  and,  to 
avert  the  threatened  evil,  the  Bill  was  modi- 
fied, in  the  following  year,  so  as  to  make  it 
acceptable  to  the  South ;  and,  so  as,  also,  to 
settle  the  policy  of  the  Government  for  the 
succeeding  nine  years.  A  few  extracts  fi'om 
the  debates  of  1832,  will  serve  to  show  what 
were  'the  sentiments  of  the  members  of  Con- 
gress, as  to  the  effects  of  the  protective  policy 
on  the  different  sections  of  the  Union,  up  to 
that  date : 

Mr.    Hayne,    of    South    Carolina,    said: 

"When  the  policy  of  '21  went  into  operation, 

125 


126  COTTON     IS     KING. 

the  South  was  supplied  from  the  "West,  through 
a  single  avenue,  (the  Saluda  Mountain  Gap,) 
with  live  stock,  horses,  cattle,  and  hogs,  to  the 
amount  of  considerably  upward  of  a  million  of 
dollars  a  year.  Under  the  pressure  of  the  sys- 
tem, this  trade  has  been  regularly  diminishing. 
It  has  already  fallen  more  than  one-half.  *  * 
In  consequence  of  the  dire  calamities  which 
the  system  has  inflicted  on  the  South — ^blasting 
our  commerce,  and  withering  our  prosperity — 
the  West  has  been  very  nearly  deprived  of  her 
best  customer.  *  *  And  what  was  found  to 
be  the  result  of  four  years'  experience  at  the 
South  ?  Not  a  hope  fulfilled ;  not  one  promise 
performed ;  and  our  condition  infinitely  worse 
than  it  had  been  four  years  before.  Sir,  the 
whole  South  rose  up  as  one  man,  and  protested 
against  any  further  experiment  with  this  sys- 
tem. *  *  Sir,  I  seize  the  opportunity  to 
dispel  forever  the  delusion  that  the  South  can 
find  any  compensation,  in  a  home  market,  for 
the  injurious  operation  of  the  protective  system. 
*  *  What  a  spectacle  do  you  even  now  ex- 
hibit to  the  world?     A  large  portion  of  your 


COTTON     IS     KING.  127 

fellow  citizens,  believing  themselves  to  be 
grievously  oppressed  by  an  unwise  and  uncon- 
Btitutional  system,  are  clamoring  at  your  doors 
for  justice;  while  another  portion,  supposing 
that  they  are  enjoying  rich  bounties  under  it, 
are  treating  their  complaints  with  scorn  and 
contempt.  *  *  This  system  may  destroy 
the  South,  but  it  will  not  permanently  advance 
the  prosperity  of  the  IS^orth.  It  may  depress 
us,  but  can  not  elevate  them.  Beside,  sir, 
if  persevered  in,  it  must  annihilate  that  portion 
of  the  country  from  which  the  resources  are  to 
be  drawn.  And  it  may  be  well  for  gentlemen 
to  reflect  whether  adhering  to  this  policy  would 
not  be  acting  like  the  man  who  'killed  the 
goose  which  laid  the  golden  eggs.'  Kext  to 
the  Christian  religion,  I  consider  Free  Trade ^ 
in  its  largest  sense,  as  the  greatest  blessing 
that  can  be  conferred  on  any  people." 

Mr.  McD[jFFiE,  of  South  Carolina,  said: 
"At  the  close  of  the  late  war  with  Great 
Britain^  everything  in  the  political  and  com- 
mercial changes,  resulting  from  the  general 
peace,  indicated  unparalleled  prosperity  to  the 


128  COTTON    IS     KING. 

Southern  States,  and  great  embarassment  and 
distress  to  those  of  the  North.  The  nations  of 
the  Continent  had  all  directed  their  efforts  to 
the  business  of  manufactui'ing ;  and  all  Europe 
may  be  said  to  have  converted  their  swords  into 
machinery,  creating  unprecedented  demand  for 
cotton,  the  great  staple  of  the  Southern  States. 
There  is  nothing  in  the  history  of  commerce 
that  can  be  compared  with  the  increased  de- 
mand for  this  staple,  notwithstanding  the 
restrictions  by  which  this  Government  has 
limited  that  demand.  As  cotton,  tobacco,  and 
rice,  are  produced  only  on  a  small  portion  of 
the  globe,  while  all  other  agricultm*al  staples 
are  common  to  every  region  of  the  earth,  this 
circumstance  gave  the  planting  States  very 
great  advantages.  To  cap  the  climax  of  the 
commercial  advantages  opened  to  the  cotton 
planters,  England,  their  great  and  most  valued 
customer,  received  their  cotton  under  a  mere 
nominal  duty.  On  the  other  hand,  the  pros- 
pects of  the  Northern  States  were  as  dismal  as 
those  of  the  Southern  States  were  brilliant. 
They  had  lost  the  carrying  trade  of  the  world, 


COTTON     IS     KIXG.  129 

which  the  wars  of  Europe  had  thrown  into 
their  hands.  They  had  lost  the  demand  and 
the  high  prices  which  our  ow^n  war  had  created 
for  their  grain  and  other  productions ;  and, 
soon  afterward,  they  also  lost  the  foreign  mar- 
ket for  their  grain,  owing,  partly,  to  foreign 
corn  laws,  but  still  more  to  other  causes.  Such 
were  the  prospects,  and  such  the  well  founded 
hope  of  the  Southern  States  at  the  close  of  the 
late  war,  in  which  they  bore  so  glorious  a  part 
in  viudicatino^  the  freedom  of  trade.  But 
where  are  now  these  cheering  prospects  and 
animating  hopes?  Blasted,  sir — utterly  blast- 
ed— by  the  consuming  and  withering  course 
of  a  system  of  legislation  which  wages  an  ex- 
terminating war  against  the  blessings  of  com- 
merce and  the  bounties  of  a  merciful  Provi- 
dence ;  and  which,  by  an  impious  perversion 
of  language,  is  called  '  Protection.'  *  *  I 
will  now  add,  sir,  my  deep  and  deliberate 
conviction,  in  the  face  of  all  the  miserable 
cant  and  hypocrisy  with  which  the  world 
abounds  on  the  subject,  that  any  course  of 
measures  which  shall  hasten  the  abolition  of 


130  COTTON    IS     KING. 

slavery,  by  destroying  the  value  of  slave  labor, 
will  bring  upon  the  Southern  States  the  great- 
est political  calamity  with  which  they  can  be 
afflicted;  for  I  sincerely  believe,  that  when 
the  people  of  those  States  shall  be  compelled, 
by  such  means,  to  emancipate  their  slaves, 
they  will  be  but  a  few  degrees  above  the  condi- 
tion of  slaves  themselves.  Yes,  sir,  mark 
what  I  say:  when  the  people  of  the  South 
cease  to  be  masters,  by  the  tampering  influence 
of  this  Government,  direct  or  indirect,  they 
will  assuredly  be  slaves.  It  is  the  clear  and 
distinct  perception  of  the  irresistible  tendency 
of  this  protective  system  to  precipitate  us  upon 
this  great  moral  and  political  catastrophe,  that 
has  animated  me  to  raise  my  warning  voice, 
that  my  fellow  citizens  may  foresee,  and,  fore- 
seeing, avoid  the  destiny  that  would  otherwise 
befall  them.  *  *  And  here,  sir,  it  is  as 
curious  as  it  is  melancholy  and  distressing,  to 
see  how  striking  is  the  analogy  between  the 
Colonial  vassalas^e  to  which  the  manufacturino; 
States  have  reduced  the  planting  States,  and 
that  which  formerly  bound  the  Anglo-American 


COTTON    IS     KING.  131 

Colonics  to  the  British  Empire.  *  *  Eng- 
land said  to  her  American  Colonies,  'You 
shall  not  ti-ade  with  the  rest  of  the  world  for 
such  manufactures  as  are  produced  in  the 
mother  country!'  The  manufacturing  States 
saj  to  their  Southern  Colonies,  '  You  shall  not 
trade  with  the  rest  of  the  world  for  such  manu- 
factures as  we  produce^  under  a  penalty  of 
forty  per  cent,  upon  the  value  of  every  cargo 
detected  in  this  illicit  commerce ;  which  pen- 
alty, aforesaid,  shall  be  levied,  collected,  and 
paid  out  of  the  products  of  your  industry,  to 
nourish  and  sustain  ours.'" 

Mr.  Clay,  in  referring  to  the  condition  of 
the  country  at  large,  said:  "I  have  now  to 
perform  the  more  pleasing  task  of  exhibiting 
an  imperfect  sketch  of  the  existing  state  of  the 
unparalleled  prosperity  of  the  countiy.  On  a 
general  survey,  we  behold  cultivation  extended ; 
the  arts  flourishing;  the  face  of  the  country 
improved ;  our  people  fiilly  and  profitably  em- 
ployed, and  the  public  countenance  exhibiting 
ti-anquility,  contentment,  and  happiness.  And, 
if  we  descend   into  particulars,  we  have  the 


132  COTTON     IS     KING. 

agreeable  contemplatiou  of  a  people  out  of 
debt;  land  rising  slowly  in  value,  but  in  a 
secure  and  salutary  degree;  a  ready,  though 
not  an  exti-avagant  market  for  all  the  surplus 
productions  of  our  industry ;  innumerable  flocks 
and  herds  browsing  and  gamboling  on  ten 
thousand  hills  and  plains,  covered  with  rich 
and  verdant  grasses ;  our  cities  expanded,  and 
whole  villages  springing  up,  as  it  were,  by 
enchantment;  our  exports  and  imports  in- 
creased and  increasing;  our  tonnage,  foreign 
and  coastwise,  swelled  and  fully  occupied ;  the 
rivers  of  our  interior  animated  by  the  perpetual 
thunder  and  lightning  of  countless  steamboats ; 
the  currency  sound  and  abundant ;  the  public 
debt  of  two  wars  nearly  redeemed ;  and,  to 
crown  all,  the  public  treasury  overflowing, 
embarassing  Congress,  not  to  find  subjects  of 
taxation,  but  to  select  the  objects  which  shall 
be  liberated  from  the  impost.  If  the  term  of 
seven  years  were  to  be  selected,  of  the  greatest 
prosperity  which  this  people  have  enjoyed  since 
the  establishment  of  their  present  Constitution, 
it  would  be  exactly  that  period  of  seven  years 


COTTON     IS     KING.  133 

which  immediately  followed  the  passage  of  the 
tariff  of  1824:. 

"This  trausformation  of  the  condition  of 
the  country  from  gloom  and  distress  to  bright- 
ness and  prosperity,  has  been  mainly  the  work 
of  American  legislation,  fostering  American 
industry,  instead  of  allowing  it  to  be  controlled 
by  foreign  legislation,  cherishing  foreign  in- 
dustry. The  foes  of  the  American  system,  in 
1824:,  with  great  boldness  and  confidence,  pre- 
dicted, first,  the  ruin  of  the  public  revenue, 
and  the  creation  of  a  necessity  to  resort  to 
direct  taxation.  The  gentleman  from  South 
Carolina,  (General  Hayne,)  I  believe,  thought 
that  the  tariff  of  1824  would  operate  a  reduc- 
tion of  revenue  to  the  large  amount  of  eight 
millions  of  dollars ;  secondly,  the  destruction 
of  our  navigation;  thirdly,  the  desolation  of 
commercial  cities ;  and,  fourthly,  the  augmen- 
tation of  the  price  of  articles  of  consumption, 
and  further  decline  in  that  of  the  articles  of  our 
exports.  Every  prediction  which  they  made 
has  failed— utterly  failed.  *  *  It  is  now 
proposed  to  abolish  the  system  to  which  we 


184  COTTON    IS     KING. 

owe  so  mucli  of  the  public  prosperity.  *  * 
Why,  sir,  there  is  scarcely  an  interest — scarcely 
a  vocation  in  society — which  is  not  embraced 
by  the  beneficence  of  this  system.  *  *  The 
error  of  the  opposite  argument,  is  in  assuming 
one  thing,  which,  being  denied,  the  whole 
fails ;  that  is,  it  assumes  that  the  whole  labor 
of  the  United  States  would  be  profitably 
employed  without  manufactures.  Kow,  the 
truth  is,  that  the  system  excites  and  creates 
labor,  and  this  labor  creates  wealth,  and  this 
new  wealth  communicates  additional  ability  to 
consume;  which  acts  on  all  the  objects  con- 
tributing to  human  comfort  and  enjoyment. 
*  *  I  could  extend  and  dwell  on  the  long 
list  of  articles — ^the  hemp,  iron,  lead,  coal,  and 
other  items — ^for  which  a  demand  is  created  in 
the  home  market  by  the  operation  of  the 
American  system ;  but  I  should  exhaust  the 
patience  of  the  Senate.  Where^  where  should 
we  find  a  market  for  all  these  articles,  if  it  did 
not  exist  at  home  ?  What  would  be  the  condi- 
tion of  the  largest  portion  of  our  people,  and 
of   the   territory,   if  this  home   market  were 


COTTON    IS     KING.  135 

annihilated  ?  How  could  they  be  supplied  with 
objects  of  prime  necessity  ?  What  would  not 
be  the  certain  and  inevitable  decline  in  the 
price  of  all  these  articles,  but  for  the  home 
market  V' 

But  we  must  not  burden  our  pages  with 
further  exti-acts.  "What  has  been  quoted  affords 
the  principal  arguments  of  the  opposing  par- 
ties, on  the  points  in  which  we  are  interested, 
down  to  1832.  The  adjustment,  in  1833,  of 
the  subject  until  1842,  and  its  subsequent  agi- 
tation, are  too  familiar,  or  of  too  easy  access 
to  the  general  reader,  to  require  a  notice  from 
us  here. 


CHAP  TEE   X. 

The  results  of  the  contest,  iu  relation  to 
Protection  and  Free  Trade,  have  been  more  or 
less  favorable  to  all  parties.  This  has  been  an 
effect,  in  part,  of  the  changeable  character  of 
our  legislation ;  and,  in  part,  of  the  occurrence 
of  events  in  Europe,  over  which  our  legisla- 
tors had  no  control.  The  manufacturing 
States,  while  protection  lasted,  succeeded  in 
placing  their  establishments  upon  a  compara- 
tively permanent  basis ;  and,  by  eng'aging 
largely  in  the  manufacture  of  cottons,  as  well 
as  woolens,  have  rendered  home  manufactures, 
practically,  very  advantageous  to  the  South. 
Our  cotton  factories,  in  1850,  consumed  as 
much  cotton  as  those  of  Great  Britain  did  in 
1831 ;  thus  .  affording  indications,  that,  by 
proper  encouragement,  they  might,  possibly, 
be  multiplied  so  as  to  consume  the  whole  crop 
of  the  country.  The  cotton  and  woolen  fac- 
tories, in  1850,  employed  over  130,000  work 

136 


COTTON    IS    KING.  137 

hands,  and  had  $102,619,581  of  capital  in- 
vested in  them.  They  thus  afford  an  im- 
portant market  to  the  farmer,  and,  at  tlie  same 
time,  have  become  an  equally  important  aux- 
iliary to  the  planter.  They  may  yet  afford  him 
the  only  market  for  his  cotton. 

The  cotton  planting  States,  toward  the  close 
of  the  contest,  found  themselves  rapidly  accu- 
mulating strength,  and  approximating  the  ac- 
complishment of  the  grand  object  at  which 
they  aimed — the  monopoly  of  the  cotton  mar- 
kets of  the  world.  This  success  was  due,  not 
so  much  to  any  triumph  over  the  Korth — to  any 
prostration  of  our  manufacturing  interests — as 
to  the  general  policy  of  other  nations.  All 
rivalry  to  the  American  planters  from  those  of 
the  West  Indies,  was  removed  by  emancipa- 
tion ;  as,  under  freedom,  the  cultivation  of  cot- 
ton was  nearly  abandoned.  Mehemet  Ali  had 
become  imbecile,  and  the  indolent  Egyptians 
neglected  its  culture.  The  South  Americans, 
after  achieving  their  independence,  were  more 
readily  enlisted  in  military  forays,  than  in  the 
art  of  agriculture,  and  they  produced  little  cotton 
12 


138  COTTON    IS    KING. 

for  export.  The  emancipation  of  their  slaves, 
instead  of  increasing  the  agricultural  pro- 
ducts of  the  Republics ,  only  supplied,  in  ample 
abundance,  the  elements  of  promoting  politi- 
cal revolutions,  and  keeping  their  soil  drenched 
with  human  blood.  Such  are  the  uses  to  which 
degraded  men  may  be  applied  by  the  ambi- 
tious demagogue.  Brazil  and  India  both  sup- 
plied to  Europe  considerably  less  in  1838  than 
they  had  done  in  1820  ;  and  the  latter  country 
made  no  material  increase  afterward,  except 
when  her  chief  customer,  China,  was  at  war, 
or  prices  were  above  the  average  rates  in  Eu- 
rope. While  the  cultivation  of  cotton  was 
thus  stationary  or  retrograding,  everywhere 
outside  of  the  United  States,  England  and  the 
Continent  were  rapidly  increasing  their  con- 
sumption of  the  article,  which  they  nearly 
doubled  from  1835  to  1815;  so  that  the  de- 
mand for  the  raw  material  called  loudly  for  its 
increased  production.  Our  planters  gathered 
a  rich  harvest  of  profits  by  these  events. 

But  this  is  not  all  that  is  worthy  of  note, 
in   this  sti-ange  chapter  of  Providences.      'No 


COTTON    IS     KING.  139 

prominent  event  occurred,  but  conspired  to 
advance  the  prosperity  of  the  cotton  ti*ade,  and 
the  value  of  American  slavery.  Even  the 
very  depression  suffered  by  the  manufacturers 
and  cultivators  of  cotton,  from  1825  to  1829, 
served  to  place  the  manufacturing  interests 
upon  the  broad  and  firm  basis  they  now  oc- 
cupy. It  forced  the  planters  into  the  produc- 
tion of  their  cotton  at  lower  rates ;  and  led 
the  manufacturers  to  improve  their  machineiy, 
and  reduce  the  price  of  their  fabrics  low  enough 
to  sweep  away  all  houseJiold  inanufacticring^ 
and  secure  to  themselves  the  monopoly  of 
clothing  the  civilized  world.  This  was  the 
object  at  which  the  British  manufacturers  had 
aimed,  and  in  which  they  had  been  eminently 
successful.  The  growing  manufactm-es  of  the 
United  States,  and  of  the  Continent  of  Europe, 
had  not  yet  sensibly  affected  their  operations. 

There  is  still  another  point  requiring  a 
passing  notice,  as  it  may  serve  to  explain  some 
portions  of  the  history  of  slavery,  not  so  well 
understood.     It  was  not  until  events  diminish- 


140  COTTON    IS     KING. 

ing  the  foreign  growth  of  cotton,  and  enlarging 
the  demand  for  its  fabrics,  had  been  extensively 
developed,  that  the  older  cotton-growing  States 
became  willing  to  allow  slavery  extension  in 
the  Southwest;  and,  even  then,  their  assent 
was  reluctantly  given — the  markets  for  cotton, 
doubtless,  being  considered  sufficiently  limited 
for  the  territory  under  cultivation.  Up  to  1824, 
the  Indians  held  over  thirty-two  millions  of 
acres  of  land  in  Georgia,  Mississippi,  and 
Alabama,  and  over  twenty  millions  of  acres  in 
Florida,  Missouri,  and  Arkansas;  which  was 
mostly  retained  by  them  as  late  as  1836.  Al- 
though the  States  interested  had  repeatedly 
urged  the  matter  upon  Congress,  and  some  of 
them  even  resorted  to  forcible  means  to  gain 
possession  of  these  Indian  lands,  the  Govern- 
ment did  not  fulfill  its  promise  to  remove  the 
Indians  until  1836  ;  and  even  then,  the  measure 
met  with  such  opposition,  that  it  was  saved  by 
but  one  vote  —  Mr.  Calhoun  and  six  other 
Southern  Senators  voting  against  it.*     In  jus- 

*  Benton's  Thirty  Years'  Yievr. 


COTTON    IS     KING.  141 

tice  to  Mr,  Calhoun,  however,  it  must  be  stated 
that  his  opposition  to  the  measure  was  based 
on  the  conviction  that  the  treaty  had  been 
fraudulently  obtained. 

The  older  States,  however,  had  found,  by 
this  time,  that  the  foreign  and  home  demand 
for  cotton  was  so  rapidly  increasing  that  there 
was  little  danger  of  over-production  ;  and  that 
they  had,  in  fact,  secured  to  themselves  the 
monopoly  of  the  foreign  markets.  Beside  this, 
the  Abolition  movement  at  that  moment,  had 
assumed  its  most  threatening  aspect,  and  was 
demanding  the  destruction  of  slavery  or  the 
dissolution  of  the  Union.  Here  was  a  double 
motive  operating  to  produce  harmony  in  the 
ranks  of  Southern  politicians,  and  to  awaken 
the  fears  of  many,  l^orth  and  South,  for  the 
safety  of  the  Government.  Here,  also,  was  the 
origin  of  the  determination,  in  the  South,  to 
extend  slavery,  by  the  annexation  of  territory, 
so  as  to  gain  the  political  preponderance  in  the 
N"ational  Councils,  and  to  protect  its  interests 
against  the  interference  of  the  iTorth. 


142  COTTON    IS    KING. 

It  was  not  the  increased  demand  for  cotton, 
alone,  that  served  as  a  protection  to  the  older 
States.  The  extension  of  its  cultivation,  in  the 
degree  demanded  by  the  wants  of  commerce, 
could  only  be  effected  by  a  corresponding  in- 
creased supply  of  Provisions.  Without  this,  it 
could  not  increase,  except  by  enhancing  their 
price  to  the  injury  of  the  older  States.  This 
food  did  not  fail  to  be  in  readiness,  so  soon  as 
it  was  needed.  Indeed,  much  of  it  had  long 
been  awaiting  an  outlet  to  a  profitable  market. 
Its  surplus,  too,  had  been  somewhat  increased 
by  the  Temperance  movement  in  the  North, 
which  had  materially  checked  the  distillation 
of  grain. 

The  West,  which  had  long  looked  to  the 
East  for  a  market,  had  its  attention  now  turned 
to  the  South,  as  the  most  certain  and  conven- 
ient mart  for  the  sale  of  its  products — ^the 
planters  affording  to  the  farmers  the  markets 
they  had  in  vain  sought  fi-om  the  manufac- 
turers. In  the  meantime,  steamboat  naviga- 
tion was  acquiring  perfection  on  the  Western 


COTTON    IS     KING.  143 

rivers — the  great  natural  outlets  for  "Western 
products — and  became  a  means  of  communica- 
tion between  the  IN^orthwest  and  the  Southwest, 
as  well  as  with  the  trade  and  commerce  of  the 
Atlantic  cities.  This  gave  an  impulse  to  in- 
dustry and  enterprise,  west  of  the  Alleghanies, 
unparalleled  in  the  history  of  the  country. 
While,  then,  the  bounds  of  slave  labor  were 
exteuding  from  Yirginia,  the  Carolinas,  and 
Georgia,  Westward,  over  Tennessee,  Alabama, 
Mississippi,  and  Arkansas,  the  area  of  free 
labor  was  enlarging,  with  equal  rapidity,  in  the 
IN'orthwest,  throughout  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois, 
and  Michigan.  Thus,  within  these  provision 
and  cotton  regions,  were  the  forests  cleared 
away,  or  the  prairies  broken  up,  simultane- 
ously by  those  old  antagonistic  forces,  oppo- 
nents no  longer,  but  harmonized  by  the  fusion 
of  their  interests — ^the  connecting  link  between 
them  being  the  steamboat.  Thus,  also,  was  a 
tripartite  alliance  formed,  by  which  the  West- 
ern Farmer,  the  Southern  Planter,  and  the 
English    Manuiacturer,   became    united   in   a 


144:  COTTON     IS     KING. 

common  bond  of  interest:    the  whole  giving 
their  support  to  the  doctrine  of  Free  Trade. 

This  active  commerce  between  the  West 
and  South,  however,  soon  caused  a  rivalry  in 
the  East,  that  pushed  forward  improvements, 
by  States  or  Corporations,  to  gain  a  share  in 
the  Western  trade.  These  improvements,  as 
completed,  gave  to  the  West  a  choice  of  mar- 
kets, so  that  its  Farmers  could  elect  whether  to 
feed  the  slave  who  grows  the  cotton,  or  the 
operatives  who  are  engaged  in  its  manufacture. 
But  this  rivalry  did  more.  The  competition 
for  Western  products  enhanced  their  price, 
and  stimulated  their  more  extended  cultivation. 
This  required  an  enlargement  of  the  markets ; 
and  the  extension  of  slavery  became  essential 
to  Western  prosperity. 

We  have  not  reached  the  end  of  the  alli- 
ance between  the  Western  Farmer  and  South- 
ern Planter.  The  emigration  which  has  been 
filling  Iowa  and  Minnesota,  and  is  now  rolling 
like  a  flood  into  Kansas  and  Nebraska,  is  but 


COTTON     IS     KING.  145 

a  repetition  of  what  has  occurred  in  the  other 
Western  States  and  Territories.  Agricultural 
pursuits  are  highly  remunerative,  and  tens  of 
thousands  of  men  of  moderate  means,  or  of  no 
means,  are  cheered  along  to  where  none  for- 
bids them  land  to  till.  For  the  last  few  years, 
public  improvements  have  called  for  vastly 
more  than  the  usual  share  of  labor,  and  aug- 
mented the  consumption  of  provisions.  The 
foreign  demand  added  to  this,  has  increased 
their  price  beyond  what  the  planter  can  afibrd 
to  pay.  For  many  years  free  labor  and  slave 
labor  maintained  an  even  race  in  their  Western 
progress.  Of  late  the  freemen  have  begun  to 
lag  behind,  while  slavery  has  advanced  by 
several  degrees  of  longitude.  Free  labor  must 
be  made  to  keep  pace  with  it.  There  is  an 
urgent  necessity  for  this.  The  demand  for  cot- 
ton is  increasing  in  a  ratio  greater  that  can  be 
supplied  by  the  American  planters,  unless  by 
a  corresponding  increased  production.  This 
increasing  demand  must  be  met,  or  its  cultiva- 
tion  will    be    facilitated   elsewhere,   and   the 

monopoly   of   the   planter   in    the    European 
13 


146  COTTON    IS     KING. 

markets  be  interrupted.  This  can  only  be 
effected  by  concentrating  the  greatest  possible 
number  of  slaves  upon  the  cotton  plantations. 
Hence  they  must  be  supplied  with  provisions. 

This  is  the  present  aspect  of  the  Provision 
question,  as  it  regards  slavery  extension. 
Prices  are  approximating  the  maximum  point, 
beyond  which  our  provisions  can  not  be  fed  to 
slaves,  unless  there  is  a  corresponding  increase 
in  the  price  of  cotton.  Such  a  result  was  not 
anticipated  by  Southern  statesmen,  when  they 
had  succeeded  in  overthrowing  the  Protective 
policy,  destroying  the  United  States  Bank,  and 
establishing  the  Sub-Treasury  system.  And 
why  has  this  occurred?  The  mines  of  Cali- 
fornia prevented  both  the  Free-Trade  Tariff,* 
and  the  Sub-Treasury  scheme  from  exhausting 
the  country  of  the  precious  metals,  extinguish- 
ing the  circulation  of  Bank  Kotes,  and  re- 
ducing the  prices  of  agricultural  products  to 

*The  Tariff  of  1846,  under  which  our  imports  are  now 
made,  approximates  the  Free  Trade  principles  very  closely. 


COTTON    IS     KING.  147 

the  specie  value.  At  the  date  of  the  passage 
of  the  !N"ebraska  Bill,  the  multiplication  of 
provisions,  bj  their  more  extended  culti- 
vation, was  the  only  measure  left  that  could 
produce  a  reduction  of  prices,  and  meet  the 
wants  of  the  planters.  The  Canadian  Reci- 
procity Treaty,  since  secured,  will  bring  the 
products  of  the  British  I^orth  American  Colo- 
nies, free  of  duty,  into  competition  with  those 
of  the  United  States,  when  prices,  with  us, 
rule  high,  and  tend  to  diminish  their  cost; 
but  in  the  event  of  scarcity  in  Europe,  or  of 
foreign  wars,  the  opposite  results  may  occur, 
as  our  products,  in  such  times,  will  pass,  free 
of  duty,  through  these  Colonies,  into  the  foreign 
market.  It  is  apparent,  then,  that  nothing 
short  of  extended  free  labor  cultivation,  far 
distant  from  the  seaboard,  where  the  products 
will  bear  transportation  to  none  but  Southern 
markets,  can  frilly  secure  the  cotton  interests 
from  the  contingencies  .that  so  often  threaten 
them  with  ruinous  embarrassments.  In  fact, 
such  a  depression  of  our  cotton  interests  has 
only  been  averted  by  the  advanced  prices  which 


148  COTTON     IS     KING. 

cotton  has  commanded,  for  the  last  few  years, 
in  consequence  of  the  increased  European  de- 
mand, and  its  diminished  cultivation  abroad. 

On  this  subject,  the  London  Economist^  of 
June  9,  1855,  in  remarking  on  the  aspects  of 
the  cotton  question,  at  that  moment  says : 

"Another  somewhat  remarkable  circum- 
stance, considering  we  are  at  war,  and  con- 
sidering the  predictions  of  some  persons,  is 
the  present  high  price  and  consumption  of 
cotton.  The  crop  in  the  United  States  is  short, 
being  only  1,120,000,000  or  1,160,000,000 
lbs.,  but  not  so  short  as  to  have  a  very  great 
effect  on  the  markets  had  consumption  not 
increased.  Our  mercantile  readers  will  be 
well  aware  of  this  fact,  but  let  us  state  here 
that  the  total  consumption  between  January 
1st  and  the  last  week  in  May  was : 

CONSUMPTION    OF    COTTON. 


t853.  . 

1854. 

1855. 

Pounds,    -    -    -    -  331,703,000 

295,716,000 

415,648,000 

Less  than  1855,       -    83,940,000 

119,932,000 

Average  consumpt'n 

of  lbs.  per  week,    16,600,000 

14,000,000 

19,600,000 

COTTON     IS     KING.  149 

"  Though  the  crop  in  the  United  States  is 
short  up  to  this  time,  Great  Britain  has  re- 
ceived  12,400,000  lbs.    more  of   the   crop   of 

1854  than  she  received  to  the  same  period  of 
the  crop  of  1853.  Thus,  in  spite  of  the  war, 
and  in  spite  of  a  short  crop  of  cotton,  in  spite 
of  dear  corn  and  failing  trade  to  Australia  and 
the  United  States,  the  consumption  of  cotton 
has  been  one-fourth  in  excess  of  the  flourish- 
ing year  of  1853,  and  more  than  a  third 
in  excess  of  1854.  These  facts  are  worth 
consideration. 

"It  is  reasonably  expected  that  the  present 
high  prices  will  bring  cotton  forward  rapidly ; 
but  as  yet  this  effect  has  not  ensued.  *  * 
Thus,  it  will  be  seen  that,  notwithstanding  the 
short  crop  in  the  States,  (at  present,  they  have 
sent  us  more  in  1855  than  in  1854,  but  not  so 
much  as  in  1853,)  the  supply  from  other 
sources,    except  Egypt,   has   been   smaller  in 

1855  than  in  either  of  the  preceding  years,  and 
the  supply  from  Egypt,  though  greater  than  in 
1854,  is  less  than  in  1^53."  [From  India,  the 
principal  hope  of  increased  supplies,  the  im- 


150  COTTON     IS     KING. 

ports  for  1855,  in  the  iirst  four  months  of 
the  year,  were  less  by  47,960,000  lbs.  than 
in  1854,  and  less  by  64,004,000  lbs.  than  in 
1853.*]  "We  may  infer,  therefore,  that  the 
rise  in  price  hitherto,  has  not  been  sufficient  to 
bring  increased  supplies  from  India  and  other 
places ;  but  these  will,  no  doubt,  come  when  it 
is  seen  that  the  rise  will  probably  be  perma- 
nent in  consequence  of  the  enlarged  consump- 
tion, and  the  comparative  deficiency  in  the  crop 
of  the  United  States." 

After  noticing  the  increasing  exports  of 
raw  cotton  from  both  England  and  the  United 
States  to  France  and  the  other  countries  of  the 
Continent,  from  which  it  is  inferi'ed  that  the 
consumption  is  increasing  in  Europe,  generally, 
as  well  as  in  Great  Britain,  the  Economist 
proceeds  to  remark : 

"  A  rapidly  increasing  consumption  of  cot- 
ton in  Europe  has  not  been  met  by  an  equally 

*  These  figures  are  taken  from  a  part  of  the  Economist's 
article  not  copied.  For  the  difference  between  the  imports 
from  India,  in  the  whole  of  the  years  1850  to  1855,  see 
Table  I. 


COTTON    IS     KING.  151 

rapidly  increasing  supply,  and  the  present 
relative  condition  of  the  supply  to  the  demand 
seems  to  justify  an  advance  of  price,  unless  a 
greatly  diminished  consumption  can  be  brought 
about.  What  supplies  may  yet  be  obtained 
from  India,  the  Brazils,  Eg}^t,  etc.,  we  know 
not ;  but,  judging  from  the  imports  of  the  three 
last  years,  they  are  not  likely  to  supply  the 
great  deficiency  in  the  stocks  just  noticed.  A 
decrease  in  consumption,  which  is  recom- 
mended, can  only  be  accomplished  by  the  state 
of  the  market,  not  by  the  will  of  individual 
spinners ;  for  if  some  lessen  their  consumption 
of  the  raw  material  while  the  demand  of  the 
market  is  for  more  cloth,  it  will  be  supplied  by 
others,  either  here  or  abroad ;  and  the  only 
real  solution  of  the  difiiculty  or  means  of  lower- 
ing the  price,  is  an  increased  supply.  This 
points  to  other  exertions  than  those  which  have 
been  latterly  directed  to  the  production  of 
fibrous  materials  to  be  converted  directly  into 
paper.  Exertions  ought  rather  to  be  directed 
to  the  production  of  fibrous  materials  which 
shall  be  used  for  textile  fabrics,  and  so  much 


152  COTTON    IS     KING. 

larger  supplies  of  rags — the  cheapest  and  best 
material  for  making  paper  will  be  obtained. 
But  theoretical  production,  and  the  schemers 
who  propose  it,  not  guided  by  the  market 
demands,  are  generally  erroneous,  and  wliat 
we  now  require  is  more  and  cheaper  material 
for  clothing  as  the  means  of  getting  more  rags 
to  make  paper. 

"Another  important  deduction  may  be 
made  from  the  state  of  the  cotton  market.  It 
has  not  been  affected,  at  least  the  production 
of  cotton  with  the  importation  into  Europe  has 
not  been  disturbed  by  the  war,  and  yet  it  seems 
not  to  have  kept  pace  with  the  consumption. 
From  this  we  infer  that  legislative  restrictions 
on  ti-affic,  permanently  affecting  the  habits  of 
the  people  submissive  to  them,  and  of  all  their 
customers,  have  a  much  more  pernicious  effect 
on  production  and  trade  than  national  outpour- 
ings in  war  of  indignation  and  anger — which, 
if  terrible  in  their  effects,  are  of  short  duration. 
These  are  in  the  order  of  nature,  except  as 
they  are  slowly  corrected  and  improved  by 
knowledge;    while    the    restrictions — the   off- 


COTTON    IS     KING.  , 163 

spring  of  ignorance  and  misplaced  ambition — 
are  at  all  times  opposed  to  her  beneficent 
ordinances." 

The  Economist  of  June  30,  in  its  Trade 
Tables,  sums  up  the  imports  for  the  5th 
month  of  the  year  1855;  from  which  it  ap- 
pears, that  instead  of  any  increase  of  the 
imports  of  cotton  having  occurred,  they  had 
fallen  off  to  the  extent  of  43,772,176  lbs. 
below  the  quantity  imported  in  the  corres- 
ponding month  of  1854. 

The  Economist  of  September  1,  1855,  in 
continuing  its  notices  of  the  cotton  markets, 
and  stating  that  there  is  still  a  falling  off  in 
its  supplies,  says : 

"  The  decline  in  the  quantity  of  cotton  im- 
ported is  notoriously  the  consequence  of  the 
smallness  of  last  year's  crops  in  the  United 
States.  *  *  It  is  remarkable  that  the  addi- 
tional supply  which  has  made  up  partly  for  the 
shortness  of  the  American  crop  comes  from 
the  Brazils,  Egypt,  and  other  parts.  From 
British  India  the  supply  is  relatively  shorter 
than  from  the  United  States.     It  fails  us  more 


154  COTTON     IS     KING. 

than  that  of  the  States,  and  the  fact  is  rather 
unfavorable  to  the  speculations  of  those  who 
wish  to  make  us  independent  of  the  States, 
and  dependent  chiefly  on  our  own  possessions. 
The  high  freights  that  have  prevailed,  and  are 
likely  to  prevail  with  a  profitable  trade,  would 
obviously  make  it  extremely  dangerous  for  our 
manufactm-ers  to  increase  their  dependence  on 
India  for  a  supply  of  cotton.  In  1855,  when 
we  have  a  short  supply  fi-om  other  quarters, 
India  has  sent  us  one-third  less  than  in  1853." 
The  Economist  of  February  23,  1856,  con- 
tains the  Annual  Statement  of  Imports  for 
1855,  ending  December  31,  from  which  it 
appears  that  the  supplies  of  cotton  from  India, 
fur  the  whole  year,  were  only  145,218,976  lbs., 
or  35,212,520  lbs.  less  than  the  imports  for 
1853.  Of  these  imports  66,210,701  lbs.  were 
re-exported;  thus  leaving  the  British  manu- 
facturers but  79,008,272  lbs.  of  the  free  labor 
cotton  of  India,  upon  which  to  employ  their 
looms.* 

*The  commercial  year  is  five  days  shorter  for  1855  than 
in  former  years. 


COTTON    IS    KING.  155 

This  increasing  demand  for  cotton  beyond 
the  present  supplies,  if  not  met  by  the  cotton 
growers  of  the  United  States,  must  encourage 
its  cultivation  in  countries  which  now  send 
but  little  to  market.  To  prevent  such  a  result, 
and  to  retain  in  their  own  hands  the  monopoly 
of  the  cotton  market,  will  require  the  utmost 
vigilance  on  the  part  of  our  planters.  That 
vigilance  will  not  be  wanting. 


CHAPTEK   XI. 

Fkom  what  has  been  said,  the  dullest  intel- 
lect can  not  fail,  now,  to  perceive  the  rationale 
of  the  Kansas-iSTebraska  movement.  The  po- 
litical influence  which  these  Territories  will 
give  to  the  South,  if  secured,  will  be  of  the 
first  importance  to  perfect  its  arrangements  for 
future  slavery  extension — whether  by  divisions 
of  the  larger  States  and  Territories,  now  se- 
cured to  the  institution,  its  extension  into  ter- 
ritory hitherto  considered  free,  or  the  acquisi- 
tion of  new  territory  to  be  devoted  to  the 
system,  so  as  to  preserve  the  balance  of  power 
in  Congress.  When  this  is  done,  Kansas  and 
Nebraska,  like  Kentucky  and  Missouri,  will  be 
of  little  consequence  to  slaveholders,  com- 
pared with  the  cheap  and  constant  supply  of 
provisions  they  can  yield.  Nothing,  therefore, 
will  so  exactly  coincide  with  Southern  interests, 
as  a  rapid  emigration  of  freemen  into   these 

156 


COTTON     IS     KING.  157 

new  Territories.  White  free  labor,  doublj 
productive  over  slave  labor  in  grain-growing, 
must  be  multiplied  within  their  limits,  that  the 
cost  of  provisions  may  be  reduced  and  the 
extension  of  slavery  and  the  growth  of  cotton 
suffer  no  interruption.  The  present  efforts  to 
plant  them  with  slavery,  are  indispensable  to 
produce  sufficient  excitement  to  fill  them 
speedily  with  a  free  population ;  and  if  this 
whole  movement  has  been  a  Southern  scheme 
to  cheapen  provisions,  and  increase  the  ratio 
of  the  production  of  sugar  and  cotton,  as  it 
most  unquestionably  will  do,  it  surpasses  the 
statesman-like  strategy  which  forced  the  people 
into  an  acquiescence  in  the  annexation  of 
Texas. 

And  should  the  Anti-Slavery  voters  suc- 
ceed in  gaining  the  political  ascendency  in  these 
Territories,  and  bring  them  as  free  States 
triumphantly  into  the  Union ;  what  can  they 
do,  but  turn  in,  as  all  the  rest  of  the  Western 
States  have  done,  and  help  to  feed  slaves,  or 
those  who  manufacture  or  who  sell  the  pro- 
ducts  of   the  labor  of  slaves.      There  is   no 


158  COTTON    IS     KING. 

other  resource  left,  either  to  them  or  to  the 
older  free  States,  without  an  entire  change  in 
almost  every  branch  of  business  and  of  do- 
mestic economy.  Reader,  look  at  your  bills 
of  dry  goods  for  the  year,  and  what  do  they 
contain  ?  At  least  three-fourths  of  the  amount 
are  French,  English,  or  American  cotton 
fabrics,  woven  from  slave  labor  cotton.  Look 
at  your  bills  for  groceries,  and  what  do  they 
contain?  Coffee,  sugar,  molasses,  rice — fr'om 
Brazil,  Cuba,  Louisiana,  Carolina ;  while  only 
a  mere  fr-action  of  them  are  from  free  labor 
countries.  As  now  employed,  our  dry  goods' 
merchants  and  grocers  constitute  an  immense 
army  of  agents  for  the  sale  of  fabrics  and  pro- 
ducts, coming  directly  or  indirectly,  from  the 
hand  of  the  slave ;  and  all  the  remaining  por- 
tion of  the  people,  free  colored,  as  well  as 
white,  are  exerting  themselves,  according  to 
their  various  capacities,  to  gain  the  means  of 
purchasing  the  greatest  possible  amount  of 
these  commodities.  ISTor  can  the  country,  at 
present,  by  any  possibility,  pay  the  amount  of 
foreign  goods  consumed,  but  by  the  labor  of 


COTTON     IS     KING.  159 

the  slaves  of  the  planting  States.  This  can 
not  be  doubted  for  a  moment.  Here  is  the 
proof: 

Commerce  supplied  us,  in  1853,  with  for- 
eign articles,  for  consumption,  to  the  value  of 
^250,420,187,  and  accepted,  in  exchange,  of 
our  provisions,  to  the  value  of  but  833,809,126 ; 
while  the  products  of  our  slave  labor,  manu- 
factured and  unmaimfactured,  paid  to  the 
amount  of  $133,648,603,  on  the  balance  of  this 
foreign  debt.  This,  then,  is  the  measure  of  the 
ability  of  the  Farmers  and  Planters,  respect- 
ively, to  meet  the  payment  of  the  necessaries 
and  comforts  of  life,  supplied  to  the  country  by 
its  foreign  commerce.  The  farmer  pays,  or 
seems  only  to  pay,  $33,800,000^  while  the 
planter  has  a  broad  credit,  on  the  account,  of 
8133,600,000. 

But  is  this  seeming  productiveness  of  slavery 
real,  or  is  it  only  imaginary  ?  Has  the  system 
such  capacities,  over  the  other  industrial 
interests  of  the  nation,  in  the  creation  of 
wealth,   as   these   figures   indicate?      Or,   are 


160  COTTON     18     KING. 

these  results  clue  to  its  intermediate  position 
between  the  agriculture  of  the  country  and  its 
foreign  commerce?  These  are  questions  wor- 
thy of  consideration.  Were  the  planters  left 
to  grow  their  own  provisions,  they  would,  as 
already  intimated,  be  unable  to  produce  any 
cotton  for  export.  That  their  present  ability 
to  export  so  extensively,  is  in  consequence  of 
the  aid  they  receive  from  the  Korth,  is  proved 
by  facts  such  as  these : 

In  1820,  the  cotton-gin  had  been  a  quarter 
of  a  century  in  operation,  and  the  culture  of 
cotton  was  then  nearly  as  well  understood  as 
at  present.  The  Xorth,  though  furnishing  the 
South  with  some  live  stock,  had  scarcely  begun 
to  supply  it  with  provisions,  and  the  planters 
had  to  grow  the  food,  and  manufacture  much 
of  the  clothing  for  their  slaves.  In  that  year 
the  cotton  crop  equaled  109  lbs.  to  each  slave 
in  the  Union,  of  which  83  lbs.  per  slave  were 
exported.  In  1830  the  exports  of  the  article 
had  risen  to  143  lbs.,  in  1810  to  295  lbs.,  and 
in  1853  to  337  lbs.  per  slave.  The  total  cotton 
crop   of  1853   equaled    185   lbs.    per  slave — 


COTTON     IS     KING.  101 

making  both  the  production  and  export  of 
that  staple,  in  1853,  more  than  four  times  as 
large,  in  proportion  to  the  slave  population, 
as  they  were  in  1820.*  Had  the  planters, 
in  1853,  been  able  to  produce  no  more 
cotton,  per  slave,  than  in  1820,  they  would 
have  gi-own  but  359,308,472  lbs.,  instead  of 
the  actual  crop  of  1,600,000,000  lbs.;  and 
would  not  only  have  failed  to  supply  any 
for  export,  but  have  fallen  short  of  the 
home  demand,  by  nearly  130,000,000  lbs., 
and  been  minus  the  total  crop  of  that  year, 
by  1,240,690,000  lbs. 

In  this  estimate,  some  allowance,  perhaps, 
should  be  made,  for  the  greater  fertility  of  the 
new  lands,  more  recently  brought  under  culti- 
vation ;  but  the  difference,  on  this  account,  can 
not  be  equal  to  the  difference  in  the  crops  of 
the  several  periods,  as  the  lands,  in  the  older 

*  The  progressive  increase  is  indicated  by  the  following 

figures  : 

1820.  1830.  1840.  1853. 

Total  slaTes  in  U.  States.           1,538,098  2,009.043  2,487,356  3.2%,408 

Cotton   exported,   lbs.,           127,800,000  298,459.102  743.941,061  1.111.570.370 

Av'ge  export  to  each  slave,  lbs.,        83  143  295  337 

14 


162  COTTON    IS    KING. 

States,  in  1820,  were  yet  comparatively  fi-esh 
and  productive. 

Again,  the  dependence  of  the  South  upon 
the  IS'orth,  for  its  provisions,  may  be  inferred 
from  such  additional  facts  as  these :  The  "  Ab- 
stract of  the  Census,"  for  1850,  shows,  that 
the  production  of  wheat,  in  Florida,  Alabama, 
Mississippi,  Louisiana,  Arkansas,  and  Texas, 
averaged,  the  year  preceding,  very  little  more 
than  a  peck,  (it  was  iVo  of  a  bushel,)  to  each 
person  within  their  limits.  These  States  must 
purchase  flour  largely,  but  to  what  amount  we 
can  not  determine.  The  shipments  of  pro- 
visions from  Cincinnati  to  [N'ew  Orleans  and 
other  down  river  ports,  show  that  large  sup- 
plies leave  that  city  for  the  South ;  but  what 
proportion  of  them  is  taken  for  consumption 
by  the  planters,  must  be  left,  at  present,  to 
conjecture.  These  shipments,  as  to  a  few  of 
the  prominent  articles,  for  the  four  years 
ending  August  31,  1851,  averaged  annually 
the  following  amounts : 

Wheat  flonr, brls.       385.204 

Pork  and  bacon, lbs.   43,689,000 

Whisky, gals.    8,115,360 


COTTON    IS     KING.  IISS 

CinciDnati  also  exports  eastward,  by  canal, 
river  and  railroad,  large  amounts  of  these  pro- 
ductions. The  towns  and  cities  westward  send 
more  of  their  products  to  the  South,  as  their 
distance  increases  the  cost  of  transportation  to 
the  East.  But,  in  the  absence  of  fuU  statis- 
tics, it  is  not  necessary  to  make  additional 
statements. 

From  this  view  of  the  subject,  it  appears 
that  slavery  is  not  a  self-sustaining  system, 
independently  remunerative ;  but  that  it  attains 
its  importance  to  the  nation  and  to  the  world, 
by  standing  as  an  agency,  intermediate,  be- 
tween the  grain-growing  States  and  our  foreign 
commerce.  As  the  distillers  of  the  West  trans- 
formed the  surplus  grain  into  whisky,  that  it 
might  bear  transport,  so  slavery  takes  the  pro- 
ducts of  the  North,  and  metamorphoses  them 
into  cotton,  that  they  may  bear  export. 

It  seems,  indeed,  when  the  whole  of  the 
facts  brought  to  view  are  considered,  that 
American  slavery,  though  of  little  force  un- 
aided, yet   properly  sustained,   is   the    great 


164:  COTTON    IS     KING. 

central  power,  or  energizing  influence,  not  only 
of  nearly  all  the  industrial  interests  of  our  own 
country,  but  also  of  those  of  Great  Britain  and 
much  of  the  Continent;  and  that,  if  stricken 
from  existence,  the  whole  of  these  interests, 
with  the  advancing  civilization  of  the  age, 
would  receive  a  shock  that  must  retard  their 
progress  for  years  to  come. 

This  is  no  exaggerated  picture  of  the 
present  imposing  power  of  slavery.  It  is 
literally  true.  Southern  men,  at  an  early  day, 
believed  that  the  Protective  Tariff  would  have 
paralyzed  it — would  have  destroyed  it.  But 
the  Abolitionists,  led  off  by  their  sympathies 
with  England,  and  influenced  by  American 
politicians  and  editors,  who  advocated  Free 
Trade,  were  made  the  instruments  of  its  over- 
throw. No  such  extended  mining  and  manu- 
facturing, as  the  Protective  system  was  ex- 
pected to  create,  has  now  any  existence  in  the 
Union.  Under  it,  according  to  the  theory  of 
its  friends,  more  than  one  hundred  and  sixty 
millions  in  value,  of  the  foreign  imports  for 
1853,  would  have  been  produced  in  our  own 


^Hf^  COTTON     IS     KING.  165 

country.  But  Free  Trade  is  dominant:  the 
South  has  triumphed  in  its  warfare  with  the 
North:  the  political  power  passed  into  its 
hands  with  the  defeat  of  the  Father  of  the 
Protective  Tariff,  ten  years  since,  in  the  last 
effort  of  his  friends  to  elevate  him  to  the 
Presidency:  the  slaveholding  and  commercial 
interests  then  gained  the  ascendency,  and  se- 
cured the  power  of  annexing  territory  at  will : 
the  nation  has  become  rich  in  commerce,  and 
unbounded  in  ambition  for  territorial  aggran- 
dizement :  the  people  acquiesce  in  the  measures 
of  Government,  and  are  proud  of  the  influence 
it  has  gained  in  the  world :  nay,  more,  the 
peaceiul  aspect  of  the  nations  has  been  changed, 
and  the  policy  of  our  own  country  must  be 
modified  to  meet  the  exigencies  that  may  arise. 
One  word  more  on  the  point  we  have  been 
considering.  With  the  defeat  of  Mr.  Clay, 
came  the  immediate  annexation  of  Texas,  and, 
as  he  predicted,  the  war  with  Mexico.  The 
results  of  these  events  let  loose  from  its  at- 
tachments a  mighty  avalanche  of  emigration 
and  of  enterprise,  under  the.  rule  of  the  Free 


166  COTTON    IS    KING.  Jjjjj^ 

Trade  policy,  then  adopted,  which,  by  the 
golden  treasures  it  yields,  renders  that  system, 
thus  far,  self-sustaining,  and  able  to  move  on, 
as  its  friends  believe,  with  a  momentum  that 
forbids  any  attempt  to  return  again  to  the  sys- 
tem of  Protection.  Whether  the  Tariff  con- 
troversy is  permanently  settled,  or  not,  is  a 
question  about  which  we  shall  not  speculate. 
It  may  be  remarked,  however,  that  one  of  the 
leading  parties  in  the  l^orth  gave  its  adhesion 
to  Free  Trade  many  years  since,  and  still  con- 
tinues to  vote  with  the  South.  The  leading 
Abolition  paper,  too,  ever  since  its  origin,  has 
advocated  the  Southern  free  trade  system; 
and  thus,  in  defending  the  cause  it  has  es- 
poused, as  was  said  of  a  certain  General  in  the 
Mexican  war,  its  editor  has  been  digging  his 
ditches  on  the  wi'ong  side  of  his  breastworks. 
To  say  the  least,  his  position  is  a  very  strange 
one,  for  a  man  who  professes  to  labor  for  the 
subversion  of  American  slavery.  It  would  be 
as  rational  to  pour  oil  upon  a  burning  edifice, 
to  extinguish  the  fire,  as  to  attempt  to  over- 
throw that  system  under  the  mle  of  Free  Trade. 


4mt:  COTTON    IS    KING.  16T 

For,  whatever  differences  of  opinion  may  exist 
on  the  question  of  Free  Trade,  as  applied  to  the 
nations  at  large,  there  can  be  no  question  that 
it  has  been  the  main  element  in  promoting  the 
value  of  slave  labor  in  the  United  States  ;  and, 
consequently,  of  extending  the  system  of 
slavery,  vastly,  beyond  the  bounds  it  would 
otherwise  have  reached.  But  the  editor  re- 
ferred to,  does  not  stand  alone.  More  than  one 
United  States  Senator,  after  acquiring  noto- 
riety and  position  by  constant  clamors  against 
slavery  at  home,  has  not  hesitated  to  vote  for 
Free  Trade  at  Washington,  with  as  hearty  a 
good  will  as  any  friend  of  the  extension  of 
slavery  in  the  country ! 

All  these  things  together  have  paralyzed 
the  advocates  of  the  protection  of  free  labor,  at 
present,  as  fully  as  the  Xorth  has  thereby  been 
shorn  of  its  power  to  control  the  question  of 
slavery.  Indeed,  ft-om  what  has  been  said  of 
the  present  position  of  American  slavery,  in 
its  relation  to  the  other  industrial  interests  of 
the  country,  and  of  the  world,  there  is  no  longer 
any  doubt  that  it  now  supplies  the  complement 


168  COTTON    IS     KING.  ^^ 

of  that  home  market^  so  zealously  urged  as 
essential  to  the  prosperity  of  the  agricultural 
population  of  the  country :  and  which,  it  was 
supposed,  could  only  be  created  by  the  mul- 
tiplication of  domestic  manufactm-es.  This 
desideratum  being  gained,  the  great  majority 
of  the  people  have  nothing  more  to  ask,  but 
seem  desirous  that  our  foreign  commerce 
shall  be  cherished;  that  the  cultivation  of 
cotton  and  sugar  shall  be  extended ;  that  the 
nation  shall  become  cumulative  as  well  as 
progressive ;  that,  as  Despotism  is  striving  to 
spread  its  raven  wing  over  the  earth.  Freedom 
must  sti'engthen  itself  for  the  protection  of  the 
liberties  of  the  world ;  that  while  three  millions 
of  Africans,  only,  are  held  to  involuntary  ser- 
vitude for  a  time,  to  sustain  the  system  of  Free 
Trade,  the  freedom  of  hundreds  of  millions  is 
involved  in  the  preservation  of  the  American 
Constitution;  and  that,  as  African  emancipa- 
tion, in  every  experiment  made,  has  thrown  a 
dead  weight  upon  Anglo-Saxon  progress,  the 
colored  people  must  wait  a  little,  until  the 
general  battle  for  the  liberties  of  the  civilized 


-^  COTTON     IS     KING.  169 

nations  is  gained,  before  the  universal  eleva- 
tion of  the  barbarous  tribes  can  be  achieved. 
This  work,  it  is  true,  has  been  commenced 
at  various  outposts  in  heathendom,  by  the 
missionary,  but  is  impeded  by  numberless 
hindrances ;  and  these  obstacles  to  the  progress 
of  Christian  civilization,  doubtless  will  con- 
tinue, until  the  friends  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty  shall  triumph  in  nominally  Christian 
countries ;  and,  with  the  wealth  of  the  nations 
at  command,  instead  of  applying  it  to  pur- 
poses of  war,  shall  devote  it  to  sweeping  away 
the  darkness  of  superstition  and  barbarism 
from  the  earth,  by  extending  the  knowledge 
of  Science  and  Eevelation  to  all  the  families 
of  man. 

But  we  must  hasten. 

There  are  none  who  will  deny  the  truth  of 
what  is  said  of  the  present  strength  and  influ- 
ence of  slavery,  however  much  they  may  have 
deprecated  its  acquisition  of  power.  There 
are  none  who  think  it  practicable  to  assail  it, 
successfully,  by  political  action,  in  the  States 

where  it  is  already  established  by  law.     The 
15 


170  COTTON     IS     KING. 

struggle  against  the  system,  therefore,  is  nar- 
rowed down  •  to  an  effort  to  prevent  its  exten- 
sion into  Territory  now  free ;  and  this  contest 
is  limited  to  the  people  who  settle  the  Teni- 
tories.  The  question  is  thus  taken  out  of  the 
hands  of  the  people  at  large,  and  they  are  cut 
off  from  all  control  of  slavery  both  in  the 
States  and  Territories.  Hence  it  is,  that  the 
American  people  are  considering  the  propriety 
of  banishing  this  distracting  question  from 
national  politics,  and  demanding  of  their 
statesmen  that  there  shall  no  longer  be  any 
delay  in  the  adoption  of  measures  to  sustain 
the  Constitution  and  laws  of  om*  glorious 
Union,  against  all  its  enemies,  whether  do- 
mestic or  foreign. 

The  policy  of  adopting  this  course,  may  be 
liable  to  objection ;  but  it  does  not  appear  to 
arise  from  any  disposition  to  prove  recreant  to 
the  cause  of  philanthropy,  that  the  people  of 
the  Free  States  are  resolving  to  divorce  the 
slavery  question  from  all  connection  with  po- 
litical movements.  It  is  because  they  now  find 
themselves  wholly  powerless,  as  did  the  Colo- 


COTTON    IS     KING.  I7l 

nizationists,  fort}^  years  since,  in  regard  to 
emancipation,  and  are  thus  forced  into  a  posi- 
tion of  neutrality  on  that  subject. 

A  word  on  this  point.  The  friends  of 
Colonization,  in  the  outset  of  that  enterprise, 
found  themselves  shut  up  to  the  necessity  of 
creating  a  Kepublic  on  the  shores  of  Africa,  as 
the  only  hope  for  the  free  colored  people — the 
further  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  by  State 
action,  having  become  impracticable.  After 
nearly  fort>^  years  of  experimenting  with  the 
free  colored  people,  by  others,  Colonizationists 
still  find  themselves  circumscribed  in  their 
operations,  to  their  original  design  of  building 
np  the  Republic  of  Liberia,  as  the  only  ra- 
tional hope  of  the  elevation  of  the  African 
race — the  prospects  of  general  emancipation 
being  a  thousand-fold  more  gloomy  in  1855 
than  they  were  in  1817. 

Abolitionists,  themselves,  now  admit  that 
slavery  completely  controls  all  national  legisla- 
tion. This  is  equivalent  to  admitting  that  all 
their  schemes  for  its  overthrow  have  failed. 
Theodore  Parkee,  of  Boston,   in   a  sermon 


172  COTTON    IS     KING. 

before  hih  congregation,  recently,  is  reported 
as  having  made  the  following  declaration :  "  I 
have  been  preaching  to  you  in  this  city  for  ten 
years;  and  beside  the  multitudes  addressed 
here,  I  have  addressed  a  hundred  thousand 
annually  in  excursions  through  the  country; 
and  in  that  time  the  area  of  slavery  has  in- 
creased a  hundred  fold."  Gekkett  Smith,  in 
his  late  speech  in  Congress,  said,  that  cotton  is 
now  the  dominant  interest  of  the  country,  and 
sways  Chm'ch,  and  State,  and  commerce,  and 
compels  all  of  them  to  go  for  slavery.  Mr. 
SuMNEE,  in  his  thrice  repeated  Lecture,  in  Kew 
York,  in  May,  1855,  declared,  that,  "nothwith- 
standing  all  its  excess  of  numbers,  wealth,  and 
intelligence,  the  North  is  now  the  vassal  of  an 
oligarchy,  whose  single  inspiration  comes  from 
slavery."  *  *  It  "now  dominates  over  the 
[Republic,  determines  its  national  policy,  dis- 
poses of  its  offices,  and  sways  all  to  its 
absolute  will."  *  *  "In  maintaining  its 
power,  the  Slave  Oligarchy  has  applied  a  new 
test  for  office" — *  *  "Is  he  faithful  to 
slavery?"     *     *     "With  arrogant   ostracism, 


COTTON    IS     KING.  173 

it  excludes  from  every  national  office  all  who 
can  not  respond  to  this  test."  Hon.  L.  D. 
Campbell,  in  a  letter  to  the  Cincinnati  Con- 
vention of  Colored  Freemen,  January  5,  1852, 
said:  "I  regard  the  jpresent  position  of  your 
race  in  this  country  as  infinitely  worse  than  it 
was  ten  years  ago.  The  States  which  were 
tJieii  preparing  for  gradual  emancipation,  are 
now  endeavoring  to  extend,  perpetuate,  and 
strengthen  slavery !  *  *  A  vast  amount 
of  territory  which  was  then  free  is  now  ever- 
lastingly dedicated  to  slavery.  *  *  From 
the  lights  of  the  past,  I  confess,  I  see  nothing 
to  justify  a  promise  of  much  to  '^oviY  future 
prospects  P 

That  these  gentlemen  state  a  great  truth,  as 
to  the  present  position  of  the  slavery  question, 
and  the  darkening  prospects  of  emancipation, 
will  be  denied  by  no  man  of  intelligence  and 
candor.  Doubtless,  a  certain  class  of  poli- 
ticians, because  of  the  present  dearth  of  politi- 
cal capital,  of  any  other  kind,  will  continue  to 
agitate  this  subject.  But,  sooner  or  later,  it 
must  take  the  form  we  have  stated,  and  become 


174  COTTON    IS     KING. 

a  question  of  minor  importance  in  politics. 
This  result  is  inevitable,  because  the  people  at 
large  are  beginning  not  only  to  realize  their 
want  of  power  over  the  institution  of  slavery, 
and  the  futility  of  any  measures  hitherto 
adopted  to  arrest  its  progress,  and  elevate  the 
free  colored  people;  but  they  have  also  dis- 
covered agencies  at  work,  hitherto  overlooked, 
except  by  few,  which  are  tending  to  sap  the 
foundations  of  our  Free  Institutions,  and  to 
subject  us  to  influences  that  have  crushed  the 
liberties  of  Europe,  and  which,  if  permitted  to 
become  dominant  here,  will  blot  out  our  happy 
Republic,  and,  with  it,  the  liberties  of  the 
world. 

But,  I  am  told  that  the  Xorth  has  recently 
achieved  a  great  victory  over  the  South,  in  the 
election  of  Mr.  Banks,  as  Speaker.  Time  was 
when  such  a  result  would  have  been  considered 
far  otherwise  than  a  I^orthern  triumph.  Mr. 
Banks  is  an  ultra  Free  Trade  man,  and  his 
sentiments  will  assuredly  work  no  ill  to  the 
commercial  interests  of  the  South.  His  elec- 
tion provoked  no  threats  of  secession.     What, 


COTTON    IS     KING.  175 

then,  has  been  gained  to  the  Xorth,  in  the  wild 
excitement  consequent  upon  the  controversy 
relative  to  the  Speakership  ?  The  opponents  of 
slavery  are  fiirther  than  ever  from  accomplish- 
ing anything  practicable  in  checking  the  de- 
mand for  the  great  staple  of  the  South.  Cotton 
is  King  still. 

In  such  a  crisis  as  this,  shall  the  friends  of 
the  Union  be  rebuked,  if  they  determine  to  take 
a  position  of  neutrality,  in  politics,  on  the  sub- 
ject of  slavery ;  while,  at  the  same  time,  they 
offer  to  guarantee  the  free  colored  people  a 
Republic  of  their  own,  where  they  may  equal 
other  races,  and  aid  in  redeeming  a  Continent 
from  the  woes  it  has  suffered  for  thousands  of 
years ! 


CHAPTEK   XII. 


Topic  3. — The  industrial,  social,  and  moral  condition  of  the  Free 
People  of  Color  in  the  British  Colonies,  in  Hayti,  and  in  the 
United  States  ;  and  the  new  field  opening  in  Liberia  for  the 
display  of  their  powers. 


We  have  noticed  the  social  and  moral  con- 
dition of  the  free  colored  people,  fr-om  the  days 
of  Franklin,  to  the  projection  of  Colonization. 
We  have  also  glanced  at  the  main  facts  in  rela- 
tion to  the  Abolition  warfare  upon  Colonization, 
and  its  success  in  paralyzing  the  enterprise. 
This  subject  demands  a  more  extended  notice. 
The  most  serious  injury  from  this  hostility, 
sustained  by  the  cause  of  Colonization,  was  the 
prejudice  created,  in  the  minds  of  the  more 
intelligent  free  colored  men,  against  emigra- 
tion to  Liberia.  The  Colonization  Society  had 
expressed  its  belief  in  the  natural  equality  of 
the  blacks  and  whites ;  and  that  there  were  a 
sufficient  number  of  educated,  upright,  free 
colored  men,  in  the  United  States,  to  establish 

176 


COTTON    IS     KING.  17T 

and  sustain  a  Republic  on  the  coast  of  Africa, 
''"whose  citizens,  rising  rapidly  in  the  scale  of 
existence,  under  the  stimulants  to  noble  effort 
by  which  they  would  be  surrounded,  might 
soon  become  equal  to  the  people  of  Europe,  or 
of  European  origin — so  long  their  masters  and 
oppressors."  These  were  the  sentiments  of  the 
first  Repoi-t  of  the  Colonization  Society,  and 
often  repeated  since.  Its  appeals  were  made 
to  the  moral  and  intelligent  of  the  fr'ee  colored 
people;  and,  with  their  co-operation,  the  suc- 
cess of  its  scheme  was  considered  certain. 
But  the  very  persons  needed  to  lead  the  enter- 
prise, were,  mostly,  persuaded  to  reject  the 
proffered  aid,  and  the  Society  was  left  to  prose- 
cute its  plans  with  such  materials  as  offered. 
In  consequence  of  this  opposition,  it  was 
greatly  embarrassed,  and  made  less  progress 
in  its  work  of  Afr-ican  redemption,  than  it 
must  have  done  under  other  circumstances. 
Had  three-fourths  of  its  emigrants  been  the 
enlightened,  free  colored  men  of  the  country, 
a  dozen  Liberias  might  now  gird  the  coast  of 
Africa,  where  but  one  exists;  and  the  slave 


178  COTTON     IS     KING. 

trader  be  entirely  excluded  from  its  shores. 
Doubtless,  a  wise  Providence  has  governed 
here,  as  in  other  human  afiairs,  and  may  have 
permitted  this  result,  to  show  how  speedily 
even  semi-civilized  men  can  be  elevated  under 
American  Protestant  Free  Institutions.  The 
great  body  of  emigrants  to  Liberia,  and  nearly 
all  the  leading  men  who  have  sprung  up  in 
the  Colony,  and  contributed  most  to  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Republic,  went  out  fi*om  the  veiy 
midst  of  slavery;  and  yet,  what  encouraging 
results !  It  has  been  a  sad  mistake  to  oppose 
Colonization,  and  thus  to  retard  Africa's  re- 
demption ! 

But  how  has  it  fared  with  the  fr^ee  colored 
people  elsewhere?  The  answer  to  this  ques- 
tion will  be  the  solution  of  the  inquiry,  What 
has  Abolitionism  accomplished  by  its  hostility 
to  Colonization,  and  what  is  the  condition  of 
the  free  colored  people,  whose  interests  it  vol- 
unteered to  promote,  and  whose  destinies  it 
attempted  to  control? 

The  Abolitionists  themselves  shall  answer 
this   question.     The   colored   people  shall  see 


COTTON    IS    KING.  179 

what  kind  of  commendations  their  tutors  give 
them,  and  what  the  world  is  to  think  of  them, 
on  the  testimony  of  their  particular  friends. 

The  concentration  of  a  colored  population 
in  Canada,  is  the  work  of  American  Aboli- 
tionists. The  American  Missionary  Associ- 
ation^ is  their  organ  for  the  spread  of  a  Gos- 
pel untainted,  it  is  claimed,  by  contact  with 
slavery.  Out  of  four  stations  under  its  care 
in  Canada,  at  the  opening  of  1853,  but  one 
school,  that  of  Miss  Lyon,  remained  at  its 
close.  All  the  others  were  abandoned,  and  all 
the  missionaries  had  asked  to  be  released,*  as 
we  are  informed  by  its  Seventh  Annual  Report, 
chiefly  for  the  reasons  stated  in  the  following 
extract,  page  49 : 

"  The  number  of  missionaries  and  teachers 
in  Canada,  with  which  the  year  commenced, 
has  been  greatly  reduced.  Early  in  the  year, 
Mr.  KiRKLAXD  wrote  to  the  Committee,  that 
the   opposition   to   white   missionaries,    mani- 


*Mr.  WiLsox,  the   Missionary   at  St.    Catharines,   still 
remained  there,  but  not  under  the  care  of  the  Association. 


180  COTTON    IS     KING. 

fested  by  the  colored  people  of  Canada,  had  so 
greatly  increased,  by  the  interested  misrepre- 
sentations of  ignorant  colored  men,  pretending 
to  be  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  that  he  thought 
his  own  and  his  wife's  labors,  and  the  funds 
of  the  Association,  could  be  better  employed 
elsewhere." 

It  is  not  our  purpose  to  multiply  testimony 
on  this  subject,  but  simply  to  afford  an  index 
to  the  condition  of  the  colored  people,  as  de- 
scribed by  Abolition  pens,  best  known  to  the 
public.  We  turn,  therefore,  from  the  British 
Colonies  in  the  I^orth,  to  her  possessions  in  the 
Tropics. 

"West  India  Emancipation,  under  the  guid- 
ance of  English  Abolitionists,  has  always  been 
viewed  as  the  grand  experiment,  which  was  to 
convince  the  world  of  the  capacity  of  the  colored 
man  to  rise,  side  by  side,  with  the  white  man. 
We  shall  let  the  friends  of  the  system,  and  the 
public  documents  of  the  British  Government, 
testify  as  to  its  results,  both  morally  and  eco- 
nomically. Opening,  again,  the  Seventh  An- 
nual  Report    of   the   American  Missionary 


COTTON     IS     KING.  181 

Association^  page  ^0,  where  it  speaks  of  their 
moral  coiidition,  we  find  it  written : 

"One  of  our  missionaries,  in  giving  a 
description  of  the  moral  condition  of  the  people 
of  Jamaica,  after  speaking  of  the  licentiousness 
which  they  received  as  a  legacy  from  those 
who  denied  them  the  pure  joys  of  holy  wed- 
lock, and  trampled  upon  and  scourged  chastity, 
as  if  it  were  a  fiend  to  be  driven  out  from 
among  men — that  enduring  legacy,  which,  with 
its  foul,  pestilential  influence,  still  blights,  like 
the  mildew  of  death,  everything  in  society  that 
should  be  lovely,  virtuous,  and  of  good  report ; 
and  alluding  to  their  intemperance,  in  which 
they  have  followed  the  example  set  by  the 
Governor  in  his  palace,  the  Bishop  in  his  robes, 
statesmen  and  judges,  lawyers  and  doctors, 
planters  and  overseers,  and  even  professedly 
Christian  ministers ;  and  the  deceit  and  false- 
hood which  oppression  and  wi'ong  always  en- 
gender, says:  'It  must  not  be  forgotton  that 
we  are  following  in  the  wake  of  the  accursed 
system  of  slavery — a  system  that  unmalces 
man^  by  warring  upon  his   conscience,   and 


182  COTTON    IS     KING. 

crushing  his  spirit,  leaving  naught  but  the 
shattered  wrecks  of  humanity  behind  it.  K  we 
may  but  gather  up  some  of  these  floating  frag- 
ments, from  which  the  image  of  God  is  well 
nigh  efiaced,  and  pilot  them  safely  into  that 
better  land,  we  shall  not  have  labored  in  vain. 
But  we  may  hoj^e  to  do  more.  The  chief  fruit 
of  our  labors  is  to  be  sought  in  the  future^ 
rather  than  in  the  present.'^  It  should  be  re- 
membered, too,  (continues  the  Report,)  that 
there  is  but  a  small  part  of  the  population  yet 
brouo-ht  within  the  reach  of  the  influence  of 
enlightened  Christian  teachers,  while  the  great 
mass  by  whom  they  are  sm-rounded  are  but 
little  removed  from  actual  heathenism."  An- 
other missionary,  page  33,  says,  it  is  the  opinion 
of  all  intelligent  Christian  men,  that  "nothing 
save  the  famishing  of  the  people  with  ample 
means  of  education  and  religious  instruction 
will  save  them  from  relapsing  into  a  state  of 
barbarism."  And  another,  page  36,  in  speak- 
ing of  certain  cases  of  discipline,  for  the  high- 
est form  of  crime,  under  the  seventh  command- 
ment, says :  "  There  is  nothing  in  public  sen- 


COTTON     IS     KING.  183 

timent  to  save  the  youth  of  Jamaica  in  this 
respect." 

The  missions  of  this  Association,  in  Ja- 
maica, difier  scarcely  a  shade  from  those  among 
the  actual  heathen.  On  this  point,  the  Keport, 
near  its  close,  says : 

"  For  most  of  the  adult  population  of  Ja- 
maica, the  unhappy  victims  of  long  years  of 
oppression  and  degradation,  our  missionaries 
have  great  fear.  Yet  for  even  these  there  may 
be  hope,  even  though  with  trembling.  But  it 
is  around  the  youth  of  the  island  that  their 
brightest  hopes  and  anticipations  cluster ;  from 
them  they  expect  to  gather  their  principal 
sheaves  for  the  great  Lord  of  the  harvest." 

The  American  Missionary^  a  monthly 
paper,  and  organ  of  this  Association,  for  July, 
1855,  has  the  following  quotation  from  the  let- 
ters of  the  missionaries,  recently  received.  It 
is  given,  as  Abolition  testimony,  in  farther 
confirmation  of  the  moral  condition  of  the 
colored  people  of  Jamaica : 

"  From  the  number  of  churches  and  chapels 
in  the  island,  Jamaica  ought  certainly  to  be 


184  COTTON    IS     KING. 

called  a  Christian  land.  The  people  may  be 
called  a  church-going  people.  There  are  chap- 
els and  places  of  worship  enough,  at  least  in 
this  part  of  the  island,  to  supply  the  people  if 
every  station  of  our  mission  were  given  up. 
And  there  is  no  lack  of  ministers  and  preach- 
ers. As  far  as  I  am  acquainted,  almost  the 
entire  adult  population  profess  to  have  a  hope 
of  eternal  life,  and  I  think  the  larger  part  are 
connected  with  churches.  In  view  of  such 
facts  some  have  been  led  to  say,  '  The  spiritual 
condition  of  the  population  is  very  satisfac- 
tory.' But  there  is  another  class  of  facts  that 
is  perfectly  astounding.  With  all  this  array 
of  the  externals  of  religion,  one  broad,  deep 
wave  of  moral  death  rolls  over  the  land.  A 
man  may  be  a  drunkard,  a  liar,  a  Sabbath- 
breaker,  a  profane  man,  a  fornicator,  an  adul- 
terer, and  such  like — and  be  known  to  be 
such — and  go  to  chapel,  and  hold  up  his  head 
there,  and  feel  no  disgrace  from  these  things, 
because  they  are  so  common  as  to  create  a 
public  sentiment  in  his  favor.  He  may  go  to 
the  communion  table,  and  cherish  a  hope  of 


COTTON    IS     KING.  18'S 

heaven,  and  not  have  his  hope  disturbed.  I 
might  tell  of  persons  guilty  of  some,  if  not  all, 
these  things,  ministering  in  holy  things." 

What  motives  can  prompt  the  American 
Missionary  Association  to  cast  such  imputa- 
tions upon  the  missions  of  the  English  and 
Scotch  Churches,  in  Jamaica,  we  leave  to  be 
determined  by  the  parties  interested.  Few, 
indeed,  will  believe  that  the  English  and  Scotch 
Churches  would,  for  a  moment,  tolerate  such  a 
condition  of  things,  in  their  mission  stations, 
as  is  here  represented. 

Kext  we  turn  to  the  Annual  Rejport  of 
the  American  and  Foreign  Anti- Slavery 
Society^  1853,  which  discourses  thus,  in  its 
own  language,  and  in  quotations  which  it 
indorses:* 

"Tlie  friends  of  emancipation  in  the  United 
States  have  been  disappointed  in  some  respects 
at  the  results  in  the  West  Indies,  because  they 
expected  too  much.  A  nation  of  slaves  can 
not  at  once  be  converted  into  a  nation  of  intel- 


*  Page  170. 

16 


186  COTTON    IS     KING. 

ligent,  industi'ious,  and  moral  freemen."  *  * 
"It  is  not  too  mnch,  even  now,  to  say  of  the 
people  of  Jamaica,  *  *  their  condition  is 
exceedingly  degraded,  their  morals  woefully 
corrupt.  But  this  must,  by  no  means,  be  un- 
derstood to  be  of  universal  application.  With 
respect  to  those  who  have  been  brought  under 
a  heathful  educational  and  religious  influence, 
it  is  not  true.  But  as  respects  the  great  mass, 
whose  humanity  has  been  ground  out  of  them 
by  cruel  oppression — whom  no  good  Samaritan 
hand  has  yet  reached — how  could  it  be  other- 
wise? TTe  wish  to  turn  the  tables ;  to  supplant 
oppression  by  righteousness,  insult  by  compas- 
sion and  brotherly  kindness,  hati-ed  and  con- 
tempt by  love  and  winning  meekness,  till  we 
allure  these  wretched  ones  to  the  hope  and  en- 
joyment of  manhood  and  virtue."*  *  *  "The 
means  of  education  and  religious  instruction 
are  better  enjoyed,  although  but  little  appre- 
ciated and  improved  by  the  great  mass  of  the 


*  Extract  from  the  report  of  a  missionaiy,  quoted  in  the 
Report,  page  172. 


COTTON    IS     KING.  187 

people.  It  is  also  ti-ue,  that  the  moral  sense  of 
the  people  is  becoming  somewhat  enlightened. 
*  *  But  while  this  is  true,  yet  their  moral 
condition  is  very  far  from  being  what  it  ought 
to  be.  *  *  It  is  exceedingly  dark  and  dis- 
tressing. Licentiousness  prevails  to  a  most 
alarming  extent  among  the  people.  *  *  The 
almost  universal  prevalence  of  intemperance  is 
another  prolific  source  of  the  moral  darkness 
and  degradation  of  the  people.  The  great 
mass,  among  aU  classes  of  the  inhabitants, 
from  the  governor  in  his  palace  to  the  peasant 
in  his  hut — from  the  bishop  in  his  gown  to  the 
beggar  in  his  rags — are  all  slaves  to  their  cups.- '* 
This  is  the  language  of  American  Aboli- 
tionists, going  out  under  the  sanction  of  their 
Annual  Reports.  Lest  it  may  be  considered, 
as  too  highly  colored,  we  add  the  following 
from  the  London  Times,  of  near  the  same  date. 
In  speaking  of  the  results  of  emancipation,  in 
Jamaica,  it  says : 

*  Extract  from  the  report  of  another  missionaiy,  page  171, 
of  the  Report. 


188  COTTON    IS    KING. 

"The  negro  has  not  acquired,  with  his 
freedom,  any  habits  of  industry  or  morality. 
His  independence  is  but  little  better  than  that 
of  an  uncaptm-ed  brute.  Having  accepted  few 
of  the  restraints  of  civilization,  he  is  amena- 
ble to  few  of  its  necessities ;  and  the  wants  of 
his  nature  are  so  easily  satisfied,  that  at  the 
cuiTent  rate  of  wages,  he  is  called  upon  for 
nothing  but  fitful  or  desultory  exertion.  The 
blacks,  therefore,  instead  of  becoming  intelli- 
gent husbandmen,  have  become  vagrants  and 
squatters,  and  it  is  now  apprehended  that  with 
the  failure  of  cultivation  in  the  island  will 
come  the  failure  of  its  resources  for  instructing 
or  controlling  its  population.  So  imminent 
does  this  consummation  appear,  that  memo- 
rials have  been  signed  by  classes  of  colonial 
society  hitherto  standing  aloof  fi-om  politics, 
and  not  only  the  bench  and  the  bar,  but  the 
bishop,  clergy,  and  ministers  of  all  denomina- 
tions in  the  island,  without  exception,  have 
recorded  their  conviction,  that,  in  the  absence 
of  timely  relief,  the  religious  and  educational 
institutions  of  the  island  must  be  abandoned, 


COTTON    IS     KINGv  189 

and  the  masses  of  the  population  retrogade  to 
barbarism." 

One  of  the  editors  of  the  J^ew  Yorlc  Eve- 
ning Post^  Mr.  BiGELOw,  a  few  years  since, 
spent  a  winter  in  Jamaica,  and  continues  to 
watch,  with  anxious  solicitude,  as  an  Anti- 
Slavery  man,  the  developments  taking  place 
among  its  colored  population.  In  reviewing 
the  returns  published  by  the  Jamaica  House 
of  Assembly,  in  1853,  in  reference  to  the  ru- 
inous decline  in  the  Agriculture  of  the  Island, 
and  stating  the  enormous  quantity  of  lands 
thrown  out  of  cultivation,  since  1818,  the 
Post  says : 

"This  decline  has  been  going  on  from  year 
to  year,  daily  becoming  more  alarming,  until 
at  length  the  island  has  reached  what  would 
appear  to  be  the  last  profound  of  distress  and 
misery,  *  *  when  thousands  of  people  do 
not  know,  when  they  rise  in  the  morning, 
whence  or  in  what  manner  they  are  to  procure 
bread  for  the  day." 

We  must  examine,  more  closely,  the  eco- 
nomical results  of  emancipation,  in  the  West 


190  COTTON    IS     KING. 

Indies,  before  we  can  judge  of  the  effects,  upon 
the  trade  and  commerce  of  the  world,  which 
would  result  from  general  emancipation  in  the 
United  States.  We  do  this,  not  to  afford  an 
argument  in  behalf  of  the  perpetuation  of 
slavery,  because  its  abolition  might  injuriously 
affect  the  interests  of  trade  and  commerce ;  but 
because  the  whole  of  these  results  have  long 
been  well  known  to  the  American  planter,  and 
serve  as  conclusive  arguments,  with  him, 
against  emancipation.  He  believes  that,  in 
tropical  cultivation,  African  fi-ee  labor  is 
worthless ;  that  the  liberation  of  the  slaves 
in  this  country,  must,  necessarily,  be  followed 
with  results  similar  to  what  has  occurred  in 
the  "West  Indies ;  and,  for  this  reason,  as  well 
as  on  account  of  the  profitable  character  of 
slavery,  he  refuses  to  give  freedom  to  his 
slaves.  We  repeat,  we  do  not  cite  the  fact  of 
the  failure,  economically,  of  free  labor  in  Ja- 
maica, as  an  argument  for  the  perpetuation  of 
slavery.  l!^ot  at  all.  We  allude  to  the  fact, 
only  to  show  that  emancipation  has  greatly 
reduced  the  commerce  of  the  Colonies,  and  that 


COTTON     IS     KING.  191 

the  logic  of  this  result  militates  against  the 
colored  man's  prospects  of  advancement  in  the 
scale  of  political  and  social  equality.  But  to 
the  facts : 

The  British  planters,  up  to  1806.  had  re- 
ceived from  the  slave  traders  an  uninterrupted 
supply  of  laborers,  and  had  rapidly  extended 
their  cultivation  as  commerce  increased  its  de- 
mands for  their  products.  Let  us  take  the 
results  in  Jamaica  as  an  example  of  the  whole 
of  the  British  West  India  Islands.  She  had 
increased  her  exports  of  sugar  from  a  yearly 
average  of  123,979,000  lbs.  in  1772-3,  to 
231,700,000  lbs.  in  1805-6.  'No  diminution 
of  exports  had  occurred,  as  has  been  asserted 
by  some  anti-slavery  writers,  before  the  prohi- 
bition of  the  slave  trade.  The  increase  was 
progressive  and  undisturbed,  except  so  far  as 
aifected  by  seasons,  more  or  less  favorable. 
But  no  sooner  was  her  supply  of  slaves  cut 
off,  by  the  act  of  1806,  which  took  efiect  in 
1808,  than  the  exports  of  Jamaica  began  to 
diminish,  until  her  sugar  had  fallen  off  from 
1822    to    1832,    to    an     annual    average    of 


192  COTTON    IS     KING. 

131,129,000  lbs.,  or  nearly  to  what  they 
had  been  sixty  years  before.  It  was  not 
until  1833  that  the  Emancipation  Act  was 
passed ;  so  that  this  decline  in  the  exports  of 
Jamaica,  took  place  under  all  the  rigors  of 
"West  India  slavery.  The  exports  of  rum, 
coffee,  and  cotton,  were  diminished  in  nearly 
the  same  ratio. 

To  arrest  this  ruinous  decline  in  the  com- 
mercial prosperity  of  the  Islands,  emancipation 
was  adopted  in  1833  and  perfected  in  1838. 
This  policy  was  pursued  under  the  plea,  that  free 
labor  is  doubly  as  productive  as  slave  labor ; 
and,  that  the  negroes,  liberated,  would  labor 
twice  as  well  as  when  enslaved.  But  what  was 
the  result  ?  Ten  years  after  final  emancipation 
was  effected,  the  exports  of  sugar,  from  Ja- 
macia  were  only  67,539,200  lbs.  a  year,  instead 
of  234,700,000  lbs.,  as  in  1805-6.  The  ex- 
ports of  coffee,  during  the  same  year,  were 
reduced  to  5,684,921  lbs.,  instead  of  23,625,377 
lbs,  as  in  1805-6 ;  and  the  extinction  of  the 
cultivation  of  cotton,  for  export,  had  become 
almost  complete,  though,  in  1800,  it  had  nearly 


COTTON    IS     KING.  193 

equalled  that  of  the  United  States.  These  are 
no  fancy  sketches,  drawn  for  efiect,  but  sober 
realities,  attested  by  the  public  documents  of 
the  British  government.*  The  Jamaica  negro, 
ignorant  and  destitute  of  forethought,  disap- 
pointed the  English  philanthropists. 

In  Hayti,  emancipation  had  been  produc- 
tive of  results,  fully  as  disastrous  to  its  com- 
merce, as  it  had  been  to  that  of  Jamaica. 
There  was  an  almost  total  abandonment  of  the 
production  of  sugar,  soon  after  freedom  was 
declared.     This  took  place  in  1793.     In  1Y90 

*  The  average  exports  from  the  island  of  Jamaica,  omit- 
ting cotton,  during  the  three  epochs  referred  to — that  of  the 
slave  trade,  of  slavery  alone,  and  of  freedom — for  periods 
of  five  years,  during  the  first  two,  and  for  the  three  years 
separately,  in  the  last,  will  give  a  full  view  of  this  point : 

Years  of  Exports.  lbs.  Sugar.       P.  Rum.      lbs.  Coffee. 

Annual  average,  1803  to  1807,*    .     .     .  211,139,200  50.426  23,625,377 

Annual  average,  1829  to  1833.* 
Annual  average,  1839  to  1843.* 
Annual  exports,  1846, f 

Annual  exports,  1847,t 

Annual  exports,  1848  f 


.  152,564,800  35,505  17,645,602 

.    67,924,800  14,185  7,412,498 

.     57,956,800  14,395  6,047,150 

.     77,686.400  18,077  6.421,122 

.    67,539,200  20,194  5,684,921 


•Blackwood's  Magazine.  1848,  p.  225. 

tLittel's  Living  Age,  1850,  No.  309,  p.  125.— £e«er  of  Mr.  Bigelaw. 

17 


194  COTTON    IS     KING. 

the  Island  exported  163,318,810  lbs.  of  su- 
gar. But  iu  1801  its  export  was  reduced  to 
18,534,112  lbs.,  in  1818  to  5,443,765  lbs.,  and 
in  1825  to  2,020  lbs.;*  since  which  time  its 
export  has  nearly  ceased.  Indeed,  it  is  as- 
serted, that,  "  at  this  moment  there  is  not  one 
pound  of  sugar  exported  from  the  Island,  and 
aU  that  is  used  is  imported  from  the  United 

States.^'t 

The  exports  of  coffee,  from  Hayti,  in  1790, 

were  76,835,219  lbs.;  and  of  cotton,  7,004,274 
lbs.  But  the  exports  of  the  former  article,  iu 
1801,  were  reduced  to  43,420,270  lbs.,  and 
the  latter  to  474,118  Ibs.J  The  exports  of 
coffee  have  varied,  annually,  since  that  period, 
from  thirty  to  forty  million  pounds ;  and  the 
cotton  exported  has  rarely  much  exceeded  one 
million  pounds.§  At  present,  "with  the  ex- 
ception of  Gonaives,  there  is  not  a  pound  of 
cotton  produced,  and  only  a  very  limited  quan- 

*  Macgregor,  London  ed.,  1847. 
+  De  Bow's  Review,  Aug.,  1855. 
$  Macgregor,  London  ed.,  1847, 
§Ibid. 


COTTON    IS     KING.  195 

tity  there,  barely  sufficient  for  consumption; 
and  instead  of  exporting  indigo,  as  formerly, 
they  import  all  they  use  from  the  United 
States."* 

According  to  the  authorities  before  cited, 
the  deficit  of  free-labor  tropical  cultivation,  as 
compared  with  that  of  slave  labor,  while  sus- 
tained by  the  slave  trade,  including  the  British 
"West  Indies  and  Hayti,  stands  as  follows : — a 
startling  result,  ti'uly,  to  those  who  expected 
emancipation  to  work  well  for  commerce,  and 
supercede  the  necessity  of  employing  slave 
labor : 

Contrast  of  Slave  Labor  and  Free  Labor  Exports  from 
the  West  Indies. 

SLAVE     LABOR. 

Tears.  lbs.  Sugar.  lbs.  Coffee,  lbs.  Cotton. 
British  West  Indies,  1807,  -  636,025,643  31,610,764  17,000,000* 
Hayti,         -         -         -  1790,  -  163,318,810       76,835,219       7,286,126 


Total,    -         -        -         -  809,344,453     108,245,983     24,286,126 


*De  Bow's  Review,  1855. 


196  COTTON    IS     KING. 


FREE     LABOR. 

Tears.        Ihs.  Sugar.         lbs.  Coffee,  lbs.  Cotton. 

British  West  Indies,  1848,  -  313,306,112       6,770,792  427,529* 

Hayti,       -       -        -  1848,  -  very  little      34,114,717t  l,591,454t 


Total,    -         -         -         -  313,306,112       40,885,509       2,018,983 

Free  Labor  Deficit,    -  496,038,341      67,360,474    22,267,143 

»  1840.  t  1847. 

To  understand  the  bearing  whicli  this  de- 
crease of  production,  by  Free  Labor,  has  upon 
the  interests  of  the  African  race,  it  must  be 
remembered,  that  the  consumption  of  cotton 
and  sugar  has  not  diminished,  but  increased, 
vastly;  and  that  for  every  bale  of  cotton,  or 
hogshead  of  sugar,  that  the  free  labor  produc- 
tion is  diminished,  an  equal  amount  of  slave 
labor  cotton  and  sugar  is  demanded  to  supply 
its  place ;  and,  more  than  this,  for  every  addi- 
tional bale  or  hogshead  required  by  their  in- 
creased consumption,  an  additional  one  must 
be  furnished  by  slave  labor,  because  the  world 
will  not  dispense  with  their  use.  As  no  ma- 
terial change  has  occuiTed,  for  several  years,  in 
the  commercial  condition  of  the  islands,  it  is 
not  necessary  to  bring  the  statements  down  to 


COTTON    IS     KING.  197 

a  later  date  than  IS-iS.  The  causes  operating 
to  encourage  the  American  phmters,  in  extend- 
ing their  cultivation  of  cotton  and  sugar,  can 
now  be  understood. 

In  relation  to  the  moral  condition  of  Hajti, 
we  need  say  but  little.  It  is  known  that  a 
great  majority  of  the  children  of  the  Island  are 
born  out  of  wedlock,  and  that  the  Christian 
Sabbath  is  the  principal  market  day  in  the 
towns.  The  American  and  Foreign  Christian 
Union^  a  missionary  paper  of  New  York,  after 
quoting  the  report  of  one  of  the  missionaries  in 
Hayti,  who  represents  his  success  as  encour- 
aging, thus  remarks :  "  This  letter  closes  with 
some  singular  incidents  not  suitable  for  publi- 
cation, showing  the  deplorable  state  of  commu- 
nity there,  both  morally  and  socially.  There 
seems  to  be  a  mixture  of  African  barbarism 
with  the  sensuous  civilization  of  France.  *  * 
That  dark  land  needs  the  light  which  begins 
to  dawn  thereon." 

The  West  India  emancipation  experiments 
have  demonstrated  the  truth  of  a  few  principles 


198  COTTON     IS     KING. 

that  the  world  should  fully  understand.  It 
must  now  be  admitted  that  mere  personal 
liberty,  even  connected  with  the  stimulus  of 
wages,  is  insufficient  to  secure  the  industry  of 
an  ignorant  population.  It  is  Intelligence, 
alone,  that  can  be  acted  upon  by  such  motives. 
Intelligence,  then,  must  precede  voluntary  In- 
dustry. And,  hereafter,  that  man,  or  nation, 
may  find  it  difficult  to  command  respect,  or 
succeed  in  being  esteemed  wise,  who  will 
not,  along  with  exertions  to  extend  personal 
freedom  to  man,  intimately  blend  with  their 
efibrts  adequate  means  for  intellectual  and 
moral  improvement.  The  results  of  West  In- 
dia emancipation,  it  must  be  farther  noticed, 
fully  confirm  the  opinions  of  Fkanklin,  that 
freedom,  to  unenlightened  slaves,  must  be  ac- 
companied with  the  means  of  intellectual  and 
moral  elevation,  otherwise  it  may  be  productive 
of  serious  evils  to  themselves  and  to  society. 
It  also  sustains  the  views  entertained  by  South- 
ern slaveholders,  that  emancipation,  unaccom- 
panied by  the  colonization  of  the  slaves,  could 
be  of  little  value  to  the  blacks,  while  it  would 


COTTON     IS     KING.  199 

entail  a  niinous  burden  upon  the  whites.  These 
facts  must  not  be  overlooked  in  the  projection 
of  plans  for  emancipation,  as  none  can  receive 
the  sanction  of  Southern  men,  which  does  not 
embrace  in  it  the  removal  of  the  colored  people. 
"With  the  example  of  West  India  emancipation 
before  them,  and  the  results  of  which  have 
been  closely  watched  by  them,  it  can  not  be 
expected  that  Southern  statesmen  will  risk  the 
liberation  of  their  slaves,  except  on  these 
conditions. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

In  tiu'ning  to  the  condition  of  our  own  free 
colored  people,  who  rejected  homes  in  Liberia, 
we  approach  a  most  important  subject.  They 
have  been  under  the  guardianship  of  their 
Abolition  friends,  ever  since  that  period,  and 
have  cherished  feelings  of  determined  hostility 
to  Colonization.  What  have  they  gained  by 
this  hostility?  What  has  been  accomplished 
for  them  by  their  Abolition  friends,  or  what 
have  they  done  for  themselves?  Those  who 
took  reftige  in  Liberia  have  built  up  a  Republic 
of  their  own ;  and  are  recognized  as  an  inde- 
pendent nation,  by  five  of  the  great  govern- 
ments of  the  earth.  But  what  has  been  the 
progress  of  those  who  remained  behind,  in  the 
vain  hope  of  rising  to  an  equality  with  the 
whites,  and  of  assisting  in  abolishing  Ameri- 
can slavery  ? 

We  ofier  no  opinion,  here,  of  our  own,  as 

to  the  present  social  and   moral  condition  of 
200 


COTTON    IS    KING.  2G1 

the  free  colored  people  in  the  I^orth.  What  it 
was  at  the  time  of  the  founding  of  Liberia, 
has  already  been  shown.  On  this  subject  we 
might  quote  largely  from  the  proceedings  of 
the  Conventions  of  the  colored  people,  and  the 
writings  of  their  editors,  so  as  to  produce  a 
dark  picture  indeed ;  but  this  would  be  cruel, 
as  their  voices  are  but  the  wailings  of  noble, 
sensitive,  and  benevolent  hearts,  while  weeping 
over  the  moral  desolations  that  have  over- 
whelmed their  people.  Nor  shall  we  multi- 
ply testimony  on  the  subject ;  but  in  this,  as 
in  the  case  of  Canada  and  the  West  Indies, 
allow  the  Abolitionists  to  speak  of  their  own 
schemes.  The  Hon.  Gerbitt  Smith,  in  his 
letter  to  Gov.  Hunt,  of  'New  York,  in  1S52, 
while  speaking  of  his  ineffectual  efforts,  for 
fifteen  years  past,  to  prevail  upon  the  free  col- 
ored people  to  betake  themselves  to  mechanical 
and  agricultural  pursuits,  says : 

"Suppose,  moreover,  that  during  all  these 
fifteen  years,  they  had  been  quitting  the  cities, 
where  the  mass  of  them  rot^  loth  physically 
and  morally^  and  had  gone  into  the  countiy  to 


202  COTTON    IS     KING. 

become  farmers  and  mechanics — suppose,  I 
say,  all  this — and  who  would  have  the  hardi- 
hood to  affirm  that  the  Colonization  Society- 
lives  upon  the  malignity  of  the  whites — ^but  it 
is  true  that  it  lives  upon  the  voluntary  degra- 
dation of  the  Hacks.  I  do  not  say  that  the 
colored  people  are  more  debased  than  white 
people  would  be  if  persecuted,  oppressed  and 
outraged  as  are  the  colored  people.  But  I  do 
say  that  they  are  debased,  deeply  debased; 
and  that  to  recover  themselves  they  must  be- 
come heroes,  self-denying  heroes,  capable  of 
achieving  a  great  moral  victory — a  two-fold 
victory — a  victory  over  themselves  and  a  vic- 
tory over  their  enemies." 

The  New  York  Tribune^  September  22, 
1855,  in  noticing  the  movements  of  the  colored 
people  of  !N'ew  York,  to  secure  to  themselves 
equal  suffi-age,  thus  gives  utterance  to  its  views 
of  their  moral  condition : 

"Most  earnestly  desiring  the  enfranchise- 
ment of  the  Afric-American  race,  we  would 
gladly  wean  them,  at  the  cost  of  some  addi^ 
tional  ill-will,  from  the  sterile  path  of  political 


COTTON    IS    KING.  203 

agitation.  They  can  help  win  their  rights  if 
they  will,  but  not  by  jawdng  for  them.  One  ne- 
gro on  a  farm  which  he  has  cleared  or  bought, 
patiently  hewing  out  a  modest,  toilsome  inde- 
pendence, is  worth  more  to  the  cause  of  Equal 
Suffrage  than  three  in  an  Ethiopian  (or  any 
other)  convention,  clamoring  against  white 
oppression  with  all  the  fire  of  a  Spartacus.  It 
is  not  logical  conviction  of  the  justice  of  their 
claims  that  is  needed,  but  a  prevalent  belief 
that  they  would  form  a  wholesome  and  desira- 
ble element  of  the  body  politic.  Their  color 
exposes  them  to  much  unjust  and  damaging 
prejudice;  but  if  their  degTadation  were  but 
skin-deep,  they  might  easily  overcome  it.  *  * 
Of  course,  we  understand  that  the  evil  we  con- 
template is  complex  and  retroactive — that  the 
political  degradation  of  the  blacks  is  a  cause 
as  well  as  a  consequence  of  their  moral  de- 
basement. Had  they  never  been  enslaved, 
they  would  not  now  be  so  abject  in  soul ;  had 
they  not  been  so  abject,  they  could  not  have 
been  enslaved.  Our  aborigines  might  have 
been  crushed  into  slavery  by  overwhelming 


204  COTTON    IS    KING. 

force ;  but  they  could  never  have  been  made  to 
live  in  it.  The  black  man  who  feels  insulted 
in  that  he  is  called  a  '  nigger,'  therein  attests 
the  degradation  of  his  race  more  forcibly  than 
does  the  blackguard  at  whom  he  takes  offense ; 
for  negro  is  no  further  a  term  of  opprobrium 
than  the  character  of  the  blacks  has  made  it 
so.  *  *  K  the  blacks  of  to-day  were  all 
or  mainly  such  men  as  Samuel  K.  Ward  or 
Feederick  Douglass,  nobody  would  consider 
'  negro '  an  invidious  or  reproachful  desig- 
nation. 

"  The  blacks  of  om'  State  ought  to  enjoy 
the  common  rights  of  man;  but  they  stand 
greatly  in  need  of  the  spirit  in  which  those 
rights  have  been  won  by  other  races.  They 
will  never  win  them  as  white  men's  barbers, 
waiters,  ostlers  and  boot  blacks ;  that  is  to  say, 
the  tardy  and  ungracious  concession  of  the 
right  of  suffi-age,  which  they  may  ultimately 
wrench  from  a  reluctant  community,  will  leave 
them  still  the  political  as  well  as  social  infe- 
riors of  the  whites — excluded  from  all  honora- 
ble office,  and  admitted  to  white  men's  tables 


COTTON    IS     KING.  205 

only  as  waiters  and  plate-washers — ^unless  they 
shall  meantime  have  wi'ought  out,  through 
toil,  privation  and  suflering,  an  intellectual 
and  essential  enfranchisement.  At  present, 
white  men  dread  to  be  known  as  friendly  to 
the  black,  because  of  the  never-ending,  still- 
beginning  importunities  to  help  this  or  that 
negro  object  of  charity  or  philanthrophy  to 
which  such  a  reputation  inevitably  subjects 
them.  Nine-tenths  of  the  free  blacks  have  no 
idea  of  setting  themselves  to  work  except  as 
the  hirelings  and  servitors  of  white  men ;  no 
idea  of  building  a  church,  or  accomplishing 
any  other  serious  enterprise,  except  through 
beggary  of  the  whites.  As  a  class,  the  blacks 
are  indolent,  improvident,  servile  and  licen- 
tious ;  and  their  inveterate  habit  of  appealing 
to  white  benevolence  or  compassion  whenever 
they  realize  a  want  or  encounter  a  difficulty,  is 
eminently  banefal  and  enervating.  If  they 
could  never  more  obtain  a  dollar  until  they 
shall  have  earned  it,  many  of  them  would 
suffer,  and  some  perhaps  starve;  but,  on  the 
whole,   they  would    do  better    and    improve 


206  COTTON    13    KING. 

faster    than    may    now    be    reasonably    ex- 
pected." 

In  tracing  the  causes  which  led  to  the 
organization  of  the  American  Colonization  So- 
ciety, the  statistics  of  the  Penitentiaries  down 
to  1827,  were  given,  as  affording  an  index 
to  the  moral  condition  of  the  free  colored  peo- 
ple at  that  period.  The  facts  of  a  similar  kind, 
for  1850,  are  added  here,  to  indicate  their 
present  moral  condition.  The  statistics  are 
compiled  from  the  Compendium  of  the  Census 
of  the  United  States,  for  1850^  and  published 
in  1854. 


Tabular  Statement  of  the  number  of  the  native  and  foreign 
white  population,  the  colored  population,  the  number  of 
each  class  in  the  Penitentiaries,  the  proportion  of  the 
convicts  to  the  whole  number  of  each  class,  the  propoT' 
tion  of  colored  convicts  over  the  foreign  and  also  over 
the  native  whites,  in  the  four  States  named,  for  the 
year  1850: 


Classes,  etc. 

Mass. 

JV.  York. 

Penn. 

Ohio. 

Native  Whites,    -    - 

819,044 

2,388,830 

1,953,276 

1,732,698 

In  the  Penitentiary, 

264 

835 

205 

291 

Being  1  out  of  -    - 

3,102 

2,860 

9,528 

5,954 

COTTON    IS    KING.  2(^ 

Classes,  etc.  Mass.  IT.  York.         Fenn.  Ohio. 

Foreign  Whites,  -    -    163,598       655,224       303,105       218,099 
In  the  Penitentiary,  125  545  123  71 

Being  1  out  of  -    -        1,308  1,202  2,464  3,077 

Colored  Population,  9,064        49,069  53,626  25,279 

In  the  Penitentiary,  47              257  109  44 

Being  1  out  of  -    -  192               190  492  574 
Colored  convicts  over 

foreign,  -  -  -  -  6.8  times  6.3  times  5  times  5.3  times 
Colored  convicts  over 

native  whites,     -  16.1  times  15  times  19.3  times  10.3  times 

It  appears  from  these  figures,  that  the 
amount  of  crime  among  the  colored  people  of 
Massachusetts,  in  1850,  was  6rV  times  greater 
than  the  amount  among  the  foreign  born  pop- 
ulation of  that  State,  and  that  the  amount,  in 
the  four  States  named,  among  the  fi'ee  colored 
people,  averages  five-and-three-qiiarteTS  times 
more,  in  proportion  to  their  numbers,  than  it 
does  among  the  foreign  population,  and  over 
fifteen  times  more  than  it  does  among  the 
native  whites.  It  will  be  instructive,  also,  to 
note  the  moral  condition  of  the  free  colored 
people  in  Massachusetts,  the  great  center  of 
Abolitionism,  where  they  have  enjoyed  equal 
rights  ever  since  1780.    Strange  to  say,  there 


208  COTTON    IS    KING. 

is  nearly  thi-ee  times  as  much  crime  among 
them,  in  that  State,  as  exists  among  those 
of  Ohio!  More  than  this  will  be  useful  to 
note,  as  it  regards  the  direction  of  the  emi- 
gration of  the  free  colored  people.  Massa- 
chusetts, in  1850,  had  but  2,687  colored  per- 
sons born  out  of  the  State,  while  Ohio  had 
12,662  born  out  of  her  limits.  Take  another 
fact:  the  increase,  per  cent.^  of  the  colored 
population,  in  the  whole  New  England  States, 
was,  during  the  ten  years,  from  1840  to  1850, 
but  ItoV,  while  in  Ohio,  it  was,  during  that 
time,  45rVo-. 

There  is  another  point  worthy  of  notice. 
Though  the  N^ew  England  Abolition  States 
have  offered  equal  political  rights  to  the  colored 
man,  it  has  afforded  him  little  temptation  to 
emigrate  into  their  bounds.  On  the  contraiy, 
several  of  these  States  have  been  diminishing 
their  free  colored  population,  for  many  years 
past,  and  none  of  them  can  have  had  accessions 
of  colored  emigrants ;  as  is  abundantly  proved 
by  the  fact,  that  their  additions,  of  this  class  of 


COTTON    IS    KING.  209 

persons,  have  not  exceeded  the  natm-al  increase 
of  the  resident  colored  population.*  Another 
fact  is  equally  as  instructive.  It  will  be  noted, 
that,  in  Ohio,  the  largest  increase  of  the  fi-ee 
colored  population,  is  in  the  Anti-Abolition 
counties — the  Abolition  counties,  often,  having 
increased  very  little,  indeed,  between  1840  and 
1850.  But  the  most  cui-ious  fact  is,  that  the 
largest  majorities  for  the  Abolition  candidate 
for  Governor,  in  1855,  were  in  the  counties  hav- 
ing the  fewest  colored  people,  while  the  largest 
majorities  against  him,  were  in  those  having 
the  largest  numbers  of  free  negroes  and  mul- 
latoes.f  From  these  facts,  both  in  regard  to 
New  England  and  Ohio,  one  of  two  conclusions 
may  be  logically  deduced :  Either  the  colored 
people  find  so  little  sympathy  from  the  Abo- 
litionists, that  they  will  not  live  among  them ; 
or  else  their  presence,  in  any  community,  in 
large  numbers,  tends  to  cure  the  whites  of  aU 
tendencies  toward  practical  abolitionism ! 


*  See  Table  IV,  Appendix, 
t  See  Table  V,  Appendix. 

18 


CHAPTEE  Xiy. 

The  condition  of  the  free  colored  people 
can  now  be  understood.  The  results,  in  their 
case,  are  vastly  different  from  what  was  antici- 
pated, when  British  philanthropists  succeeded 
in  West  India  emancipation.  They  are  very 
different,  also,  from  what  was  expected  by 
American  Abolitionists:  so  different,  indeed, 
that  their  disappointment  is  fully  manifested, 
in  the  extracts  made  from  their  published  docu- 
ments. As  an  apology  for  the  failure,  it  seems 
to  be  their  aim  to  create  the  belief,  that  the 
dreadful  moral  depravation,  existing  in  the 
West  Indies,  is  wholly  owing  to  the  demoral- 
izing tendencies  of  slavery.  They  speak  of 
this  effect  as  resulting  from  laws  inherent  in 
the  system,  which  have  no  exceptions,  and 
must  be  equally  as  active  in  the  United  States 
as  in  the  British  colonies.  But  in  their  zeal  to 
cast  odium  on  slavery,  they  prove  too  much — 

for,  if  this  be  true,  it  follows,  that  the  slave 
210 


COTTON    IS    KING.  211 

population  of  the  United  States  must  be  equally 
debased  with  that  of  Jamaica,  and  as  much 
disqualified  to  discharge  the  duties  of  freemen, 
as  both  have  been  subjected  to  the  operations 
of  the  same  system.  This  is  not  all.  The 
logic  of  the  argument  would  extend  even  to  our 
free  colored  people,  and  include  them,  according 
to  the  American  Missionary  Association^  in 
the  dire  efiects  of  "  that  enduring  legacy  which, 
with  its  foul,  pestilential  influences,  still  blights, 
like  the  mildew  of  death,  everything  in  so- 
ciety that  should  be  lovely,  virtuous,  and  of 
good  report."  Now,  were  it  believed,  gener- 
ally, that  the  colored  people  of  the  United 
States  are  equally  as  degraded  as  those  of 
Jamaica,  upon  what  grounds  could  any  one 
advocate  the  admission  of  the  blacks  to  equal 
social  and  political  privileges  with  the  whites  ? 
Certainly,  no  Christian  family  or  community 
would  willingly  admit  such  men  to  terms  of 
social  or  political  equality !  This,  we  repeat, 
is  the  logical  conclusion  from  the  Reports  of 
the  American  Missionary  Association  and  the 
American  and  Foreign  Anti- Slavery  Society-^ 


212  COTTON     IS     KING. 

a  conclusion,  too,  the  more  certain,  as  it  makes 
no  exceptions  between  the  condition  of  the  col- 
ored people  under  the  slavery  of  Jamaica  and 
under  that  of  the  United  States. 

But  in  this,  as  in  much  connected  with 
slavery.  Abolitionists  have  taken  too  limited  a 
view  of  the  subject.  They  have  not  properly 
discriminated  between  the  effects  of  the  original 
barbarism  of  the  negroes,  and  the  effects  pro- 
duced by  the  more  or  less  favorable  influences 
to  which  they  were  afterward  subjected  under 
slavery.  This  point  deserves  special  notice. 
According  to  the  best  authorities,  the  colored 
people  of  Jamaica,  for  nearly  three  hundred 
years,  were  entirely  without  the  Gospel;  and 
it  gained  a  permanent  footing  among  them, 
only  at  a  few  points,  at  their  emancipation, 
twenty  years  ago ;  so  that,  when  liberty 
reached  them,  the  great  mass  of  the  Africans, 
in  the  British  West  Indies,  were  heathen.* 
Let  us  understand  the  reason  of  this.     Slavery 

*  Rev.  Mr.  Phillippo,  for  twenty  years  a  missionary  in 
Jamaica,  in  liis  ''Jamaica,  its  Past  and  Present  Con- 
dition." 


COTTON    IS     KING.  2l3 

is  not  an  clement  of  human  progress,  under 
•which  the  mind  necessarily  becomes  enlight- 
ened ;  but  Christianity  is  the  primary  element 
of  progress,  and  can  elevate  the  savage,  whether 
in  bondage  or  in  freedom,  if  its  principles  are 
taught  him  in  his  youth.  The  slavery  of  Ja- 
maica beojan  with  savas^e  men.  For  three  hun- 
dred  years,  its  slaves  were  destitute  of  the  Gos- 
pel, and  their  barbarism  was  left  to  perpetuate 
itself.  But  in  the  United  States,  the  Africans 
were  brought  under  the  influence  of  Christian- 
ity, on  their  first  introduction,  over  two  hun- 
dred and  thirty  years  since,  and  have  continued 
to  enjoy  its  teachings,  in  a  greater  or  less  de- 
gree, to  the  present  moment.  The  disappear- 
ance fi'om  among  oui'  colored  people,  of  the 
savage  condition  of  the  human  mind — the  in- 
capacity to  comprehend  religious  truths — and 
its  continued  existence  among  those  of  Jamaica, 
can  now  be  understood.  The  opportunities  en- 
joyed by  the  former,  for  advancement,  over  the 
latter,  have  been  six  to  one.  TTlth  these  facts 
before  the  mind,  it  is  not  difficult  to  perceive 
that  the  colored  population  of  Jamaica  can  not 


214  COTTON    IS     KING. 

but  still  labor  under  the  disadvantages  of 
Jiereditary  harharism  and  involuntary  servi- 
tude^ with  the  superadded  misfortune  of  being 
inadequately  supplied  with  Christian  instruc- 
tion, along  with  their  recent  acquisition  of 
freedom.  But  while  all  this  must  be  admitted, 
of  the  colored  people  of  Jamaica,  it  is  not  true 
of  those  of  our  own  country;  for,  long  since, 
they  have  cast  off  the  heathenism  of  their 
fathers,  and  have  become  enlightened  in  a  very 
encouraging  degree.  Hence  it  is,  that  the 
colored  people  of  the  United  States,  both  bond 
and  free,  have  made  vastly  greater  progress, 
than  those  of  the  British  West  Indies,  in  their 
knowledge  of  moral  duties  and  the  require- 
ments of  the  Gospel ;  and  hence,  too,  it  is,  that 
GERRriT  Smfth  is  right,  in  asserting  that  the 
demoralized  condition  of  the  great  mass  of  the 
free  colored  people,  in  our  cities,  is  inexcusable, 
and  deserving  of  the  utmost  reprobation,  be- 
cause it  is  voluntary — they  knowing  their  duty 
but  abandoning  themselves  to  degrading  habits. 
This  brings  us  to  another  point  of  great 
moment.     It  will  be  denied  by  but  few — and 


COTTON    IS    KING.  213 

bj  none  maintaining  the  natural  equality 
of  the  races  —  that  the  free  colored  people 
of  the  United  States  are  sufficiently  enlight- 
ened, to  be  elevated  by  education,  as  readily 
as  the  whites  of  similar  ages,  where  equal  re- 
straints from  vice,  and  encouragements  to  vir- 
tue prevail.  A  large  portion,  even,  of  the 
slave  population,  are  similarly  enlightened.* 
^\^e  speak  not  of  the  state  of  the  morals  of 
either  class. 

Our  opinion  as  to  the  advancement  of  the 
free  colored  people   of  the  United  States,  in 


*  As  many  are  not  awai-e  of  the  extent  to  wbicli  the 
religious  training  of  the  slaves  at  the  South  prevails,  we 
append  the  following  paragraphs  in  relation  to  the  efforts 
of  one  denomination,  alone,  in  South  Carolina  and  Louis- 
iana. Similar  efforts,  more  or  less  extensive,  have  been  made 
in  the  other  States: 

"  Religious  Instkcctios  of  Slaves.— The  South  Carolina  Methodist 
Conference  have  a  missionary  committee  devoted  entirely  to  promoting  the 
religious  instruction  of  the  slave  population,  which  has  been  in  existence 
twenty-six  years.  The  report  of  the  last  year  shows  a  greater  degree  of  ac- 
tivity than  is  generally  known.  They  have  twenty-six  missionary  stations  in 
which  thirty-two  missionaries  are  employed.  The  report  afi&rms  that  puhlio 
opinion  in  South  Carolina  is  decidedly  in  favor  of  the  religious  instruction  of 
slaves,  and  that  it  has  become  far  more  general  and  systematic  than  formerly. 


216  COTTON    IS    KING. 

general  intelligence,  does  not  stand  alone.  It 
is  sustained  by  high  authority,  not  of  the  Abo- 
lition   school.      The   Democratic  Review,   of 


It  also  claims  a  great  degree  of  success  to  liave  attended  the  labors  of  the 
missionaries." — ^.  Y.  Evangelist,  1855. 

Methodist  Missions  to  Slaves. — The  following  para- 
graphs are  taken  from  the  report  of  the  Missionary  Board 
of  the  Louisiana  Conference. — N.  Y.  Observer,  March,  1856. 

"  It  is  stated  upon  good  authority,  that  the  number  of  colored  members  in 
the  Church,  South,  exceeds  that  of  the  entire  membership  of  all  the  Protestant 
Missions  in  the  world.  What  an  enterprise  id  this  committed  to  our  care ! 
The  position  we,  of  the  Methodist  Church,  South,  have  taken  for  the  African, 
has,  to  a  great  extent,  cut  us  off  from  the  S3mpathy  of  the  Christian  Church 
throughout  the  world  ;  and  it  behooves  us  to  make  good  this  position  in  the 
sight  of  God,  of  angels,  of  men,  of  churches,  and  to  our  own  consciences,  by 
presenting  before  the  throne  of  His  glory  multitudes  of  the  souls  of  these 
benighted  ones  abandoned  to  our  care,  as  the  seals  of  our  ministry.  Already 
Louisiana  promises  to  be  one  vast  plantation.  Let  us — we  must  gird  ourselves 
for  this  Heaven-born  enterprise  of  supplying  the  pure  gospel  to  the  slave. 
The  great  question  is,  How  can  the  greatest  number  be  preached  to? — The 
building  roadside  chapels  is  as  yet  the  best  solution  of  it.  In  some  cases 
planters  build  so  as  to  accommodate  adjoining  plantations,  and  by  this  means 
the  preacher  addresses  three  hundred  or  more  slaves,  instead  of  one  hundred 
or  less.  Economy  of  this  kind  is  absolutely  essential  where  the  labor  of  the 
missionary  is  so  much  needed  and  demanded. 

"  On  the  Lafourche  and  Bayou  Black  Missionwork,  several  chapels  are  in 
process  of  erection,  upon  a  plan  which  enables  the  slave,  as  his  master,  to 
make  an  offering  towards  building  a  house  of  God.  Instead  of  money,  the 
hands  subscribe  labor.  Timber  is  plenty;  many  of  the  servants  are  carpen- 
Uirs.    Upon  many  of  the  plantations  are  saw  mills.    Here  is  much  material; 


COTTON     IS     KING.  217 

1852,*  when  discussing  the  question  of  their 
ability  to  conquer  and  civilize  Africa,  says : 

"  The  negro  race  has,  among  its  freemen  in 
this  country,  a  mass  of  men  who  are  eminently 
fitted  for  deeds  of  daring.  They  have  generally 
been  engaged  in  employments  which  give  a 
good  deal  of  leisure,  and  stimulus  toward  im- 
provement of  the  mind.  They  have  associated 
much  more  freely  with  the  cultivated  and  in- 
telligent white  than  even  with  their  own  color 
of  the  same  humble  station ;  and  on  such  terms 
as  to  enable  them  to  acquire  much  of  his  spirit, 
and  knowledge,  and  valor.  The  free  blacks 
among  us  are  not  only  confident  and  well  in- 
formed, but  they  have  almost  all  seen  some- 
thing of  the  world.  They  are  pre-eminently 
locomotive  and  perambulating.  In  railroads, 
and  hotels,  and  stages,  and  steamers,  they  have 


■what  hindereth  that  we  should  huild  a  church  on  every  tenth  plantation? 
Let  us  maintain  our  policy  steadily.  Time  and  diligence  are  required  to 
effect  suhstantial  good,  especially  in  this  department  of  labor.  Let  us  con- 
tinue to  ask  for  buildings  adapted  to  the  worship  of  God,  and  set  apart ;  to 
urge,  when  practicable,  the  preaching  to  blacks  in  the  presence  of  their  mas- 
ters, their  overseers,  and  the  neighbors  generally." 

*  Page  102. 

19 


218  COTTON     IS     KING. 

been  placed  incessantly  in  contact  with  the 
news,  the  views,  the  motives,  and  the  ideas  of 
the  day.  Compare  the  free  black  with  ordi- 
nary white  men  without  advantages,  and  he 
stands  well.  Add  to  this  cultivation,  that  the 
negro  body  is  strong  and  healthy,  and  the  negro 
mind  keen  and  bright,  though  not  profound  nor 
philosophical,  and  you  have  at  once  a  formida- 
ble warrior,  with  a  little  discipline  and  know- 
ledge of  weapons.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the 
picked  American  free  blacks,  would  be  five 
times,  ten  times  as  efficient  in  the  field  of  battle 
as  the  same  number  of  native  Africans." 

Why  is  it  then,  that  the  efibrts  for  the  moral 
elevation  of  the  free  colored  people,  have  been  so 
unsuccessful  ?  Before  answering  this  question, 
it  is  necessary  to  call  attention  to  the  fact,  that 
Abolitionists  seem  to  be  sadly  disappointed  in 
their  expectations,  as  to  the  progress  of  the  fi-ee 
colored  people.  Their  vexation  at  the  stub- 
bornness of  the  negroes,  and  the  consequent 
failure  of  their  measures,  is  very  clearly  mani- 
fested in  the  complaining  language,  used  by 
Gekeitt  Smith,  toward  the  colored  people  of 


COTTON    IS     KING.  219 

the  eastern  cities,  as  well  as  by  the  contempt 
expressed  by  the  American  Missionary  Asso- 
ciation^ for  the  colored  preachers  of  Canada. 
They  had  fonnd  an  apology,  for  their  want  of 
success  in  the  United  States,  in  the  presence 
and  influence  of  Colonizationists ;  but  no  such 
excuse  can  be  made  for  their  want  of  success 
in  Canada  and  the  West  Lidies.  Having 
failed  in  their  anticipations,  now  they  would 
fain  shelter  themselves  under  the  pretense,  that 
a  people  once  subjected  to  slavery,  even  when 
liberated,  can  not  be  elevated  in  a  single  gen- 
eration; that  the  case  of  adults,  raised  in 
bondage,  like  heatlien  of  similar  age,  is  hope- 
less, and  their  children,  only,  can  make  such 
progress  as  will  repay  the  missionary  for  his 
toil.  But  they  will  not  be  allowed  to  escape 
the  censure  due  to  their  want  of  discrimination 
and  foresight,,  by  any  such  plea ;  as  the  success 
of  the  Republic  of  Liberia,  conducted  from 
infancy  to  independence,  almost  wholly  by 
librated  slaves,  and  those  who  were  born  and 
raised  in  the  midst  of  slavery,  attests  the 
falsity  of  their  assumption. 


220  COTTON    IS     KING. 

But  to  return.  Why  have  the  efforts  for 
the  elevation  of  the  free  colored  people,  not 
been  more  successful?  On  this  point  our  re- 
marks may  be  limited  to  our  own  free  colored 
people.  The  barrier  to  their  progress  here, 
exists  not  in  their  want  of  capacity,  but  in  the 
absence  of  the  incitements  to  virtuous  action, 
which  are  constantly  stimulating  the  white  man 
to  press  onward  and  upward  in  the  formation 
of  character  and  the  acquisition  of  knowledge. 
There  is  no  position  in  church  or  state,  to 
which  the  poorest  white  boy,  in  the  common 
school,  may  not  aspire.  There  is  no  post  of 
honor,  in  the  gift  of  his  country,  that  is  legally 
beyond  his  reach.  But  such  encouragements 
to  noble  effort,  do  not  reach  the  colored  man, 
and  he  remains  with  us  a  depressed  and  dis- 
heartened being.  Persuading  him  to  remain 
in  this  hopeless  condition,  has  been  the  great 
error  of  the  Abolitionists.  They  overlooked 
the  teachings  of  history,  that  two  races,  differ- 
ing so  widely  as  to  prevent  their  amalgama- 
tion by  marriage,  can  never  live  together,  in 
the  same  community,  but  as  superioi*s  and  in- 


COTTON    IS     KING.  221 

feriors — the  inferior  remaining  subordinate  to 
the  superior.  The  encouraging  hopes  held  out 
to  the  colored  people,  that  this  law  would  be 
inoperative  upon  them,  has  led  only  to  disap- 
pointment. Happily,  this  delusion  is  nearly  at 
an  end ;  and  they  are  beginning  to  act  on  their 
own  judgments.  They  find  themselves  so 
scattered  and  peeled,  that  there  is  not  another 
half  a  million  of  men  in  the  world,  so  enlight- 
ened, who  are  accomplishing  so  little  for  their 
social  and  moral  advancement.  They  perceive 
that  they  are  nothing  but  branches,  wrenched 
from  the  great  African  hanyan^  not  yet  planted 
in  genial  soil,  and  affording  neither  shelter  nor 
food  to  the  beasts  of  the  forest  or  the  fowls  of 
the  air — ^their  roots  unfixed  in  the  earth,  and 
their  tender  shoots  withering  as  they  hang 
pendent  from  their  boughs. 

That  this  is  no  exaggerated  picture  of  the 
discouragements  surrounding  our  free  colored 
people,  is  fiilly  confirmed  by  the  testimony  of 
impartial  witnesses.  Chambeks,  of  Edinburgh, 
who  recently  made  the  tour  of  the  United 
States,  investigated  this  point  very  carefully. 


222  COTTON     IS     KING. 

His  opinions  on  the  subject  have  been  pub- 
lished, and  are  so  discriminating  and  truthful, 
that  we  must  quote  the  main  portion  of  them. 
In  speaking  of  the  agitation  of  the  question  of 
slavery,  he  says : 

"  For  a  number  of  years,  as  is  well  known, 
there  has  been  much  angry  discussion  on  the 
subject  between  the  Northern  and  Southern 
States ;  and  at  times  the  contention  has  been  so 
great,  as  to  lead  to  mutual  threats  of  a  dismem- 
berment of  the  Union.  A  stranger  has  no 
little  difficulty  in  understanding  how  much  of 
this  war  of  words  is  real,  and  how  much  is 
merely  an  explosion  of  hunkum.  ^^  *  I 
repeat,  it  is  difficult  to  understand  what  is  the 
genuine  public  feeling  on  this  entangled  ques- 
tion ;  for  with  all  the  demonstrations  in  favor 
of  freedom  in  the  !N'orth,  there  does  not  appear 
in  that  quarter  to  be  any  practical  relaxation 
of  the  usages  which  condemn  persons  of  Afri- 
can descent  to  an  inferior  social  status.  There 
seems,  in  short,  to  be  a  fixed  notion  throughout 
the  whole  of  the  States,  whether  slave  or  free, 
that  the  colored  is  by  nature  a  subordinate 


COTTON    IS     KING.  223 

race ;  and  that,  in  no  circumstances,  can  it  be 
considered  equal  to  the  white.  Apart  from 
commercial  views,  this  opinion  lies  at  the  root 
of  American  slavery ;  and  the  question  would 
need  to  be  argued  less  on  political  and  philan- 
thropic than  on  physiological  grounds.  *  * 
I  was  not  a  little  surprised  to  find,  when  speak- 
ing a  kind  word  for  at  least  a  very  unfortunate, 
if  not  brilliant  race,  that  the  people  of  the 
ISTorthern  States,  though  repudiating  slavery, 
did  not  think  more  favorably  of  the  negro 
character  than  those  farther  South.  Through- 
out Massachusetts,  and  other  ISTew  England 
States,  likewise  in  the  States  of  INTew  York, 
Pennsylvania,  etc.,  there  is  a  rigorous  separa- 
tion of  the  white  and  black  races.  *  *  The 
people  of  England,  who  see  a  negro  only  as  a 
wandering  curiosity,  are  not  at  all  aware  of  the 
repugnance  generally  entertained  toward  per- 
sons of  color  in  the  United  States :  it  appeared 
to  amount  to  an  absolute  monomania.  As  for 
an  alliance  with  one  of  the  race,  no  matter  how 
faint  the  shade  of  color,  it  would  inevitably  lead 
to  a  loss  of  caste,  as  fatal  to  social  position  and 


224  COTTON    IS    KING. 

family  ties  as  any  that  occurs  in  the  Brahmin- 
ical  system.     *  *  *  * 

"  Glad  to  have  had  an  opportunity  of  calling 
attention  to  many  cheering  and  commendable 
features  in  the  social  system  of  the  Americans, 
I  consider  it  not  less  my  duty  to  say,  that  in 
their  general  conduct  toward  the  colored  race, 
a  wrong  is  done  which  can  not  be  alluded  to 
except  in  terms  of  the  deepest  sorrow  and  re- 
proach. I  can  not  think  without  shame  of  the 
pious  and  polished  I^ew  England  ers  adding  to 
their  offences  on  this  score  the  guilt  of  hypoc- 
risy. Affecting  to  weep  over  the  sufferings  of 
imaginary  dark-skinned  heroes  and  heroines; 
denouncing,  in  well-studied  platform  oratory, 
the  horrid  sin  of  reducing  human  beings  to  the 
abject  condition  of  chattels;  bitterly  scornful 
of  Southern  planters  for  hard-hearted  selfish- 
ness and  depravity ;  fanatical  on  the  subject  of 
Abolition;  wholly  frantic  at  the  spectacle  of 
fugitive  slaves  seized  and  carried  back  to  their 
owners — these  very  persons  are  daily  sur- 
rounded by  manumitted  slaves,  or  their  edu- 
cated descendants,  yet  shrink  from  them  as  if 


COTTON    IS     KING.  225 

the  touch  were  pollution,  aud  look  as  if  they 
would  expire  at  the  bare  idea  of  inviting  one 
of  them  to  their  house  or  table.  Until  all  this 
is  changed,  the  N'orthern  Abolitionists  place 
themselves  in  a  false  position,  and  do  damage 
to  the  cause  they  espouse.  K  they  think  that 
negroes  are  Men,  let  them  give  the  world  an 
evidence  of  their  sincerity,  by  moving  the 
reversal  of  all  those  social  and  political  arrange- 
ments which  now,  in  the  free  States,  exclude 
persons  of  color,  not  only  from  the  common 
courtesies  of  life,  but  fi'om  the  privileges  and 
honors  of  citizens.  I  say,  until  this  is  done, 
the  uproar  about  Abolition  is  a  delusion  and  a 
snare.  *  *  *  * 

"While  lamenting  the  unsatisfactory  con- 
dition, present  and  prospective,  of  the  colored 
population,  it  is  gratifying  to  consider  the 
energetic  measures  that  have  been  adopted  by 
the  African  Colonization  Society,  to  transplant, 
with  their  own  consent,  free  negroes  from 
America  to  Liberia.  Viewing  these  endeavors 
as,  at  all  events,  a  means  of  encouraging 
emancipation,  checking  the  slave  trade,  and,  at 


226  COTTON    IS     KING. 

the  same  time,  of  introducing  Christianity  and 
civilized  usages  into  Africa,  they  appear  to 
have  been  deserving  of  more  encouragement 
than  they  have  had  the  good  fortune  to  receive. 
Successful  only  in  a  moderate  degree,  the  ope- 
rations of  this  society  are  not  likely  to  make  a 
deep  impression  on  the  numbers  of  the  colored 
population ;  and  the  question  of  their  disposal 
still  remains  unsettled." 


CHAPTER  XV. 

But  little  progress,  it  will  be  seen,  has  been 
made,  by  the  free  colored  people,  toward  an 
approximation  of  equality  with  the  whites. 
Have  they  succeeded  better  in  aiding  in  the 
abolition  of  slavery?  They  have  not,  as  is 
abundantly  demonstrated  by  the  triumph  of 
the  institution.  This  is  an  important  point 
for  consideration,  as  the  principal  object  influ- 
encing them  to  remain  in  the  country,  was, 
that  they  might  assist  in  the  liberation  of  their 
brethren  from  bondage.  But  their  agency  in 
the  attempts  made  to  abolish  the  institution 
having  failed,  a  more  important  question 
arises,  as  to  whether  the  free  colored  people, 
by  refusing  to  emigrate,  may  not  have  con- 
tributed, to  the  advancement  of  slaveiy?  An 
affirmative  answer  must  be  given  to  this  in- 
quiry. Kor  is  a  protracted  discussion  neces- 
sary to  prove  the  assertion. 


228  COTTON    IS     KING. 

One  of  the  objections  urged  with  the  greatest 
force  against  Colonization,  is,  its  tendency,  as 
is  alleged,  to  increase  the  value  of  slaves  by 
diminishing  their  numbers.  "  Jaifs  Inqxdry^'* 
1835,  presents  this  objection  at  length;  and 
the  Eeport  of  the  ^^  Anti- Slavery  Society  of 
Canada^^  1853,  sums  it  up  in  a  single  propo- 
sition, thus: 

"  The  first  effect  of  beginning  to  reduce  the 
number  of  slaves,  by  Colonization,  would  be  to 
increase  the  market  value  of  those  left  behind, 
and  thereby  increase  the  difficulty  of  setting 
them  free." 

The  practical  effect  of  this  doctrine,  is  to 
discourage  all  emancipations  ;  to  render  eternal 
the  bondage  of  each  individual  slave,  unless 
all  can  be  liberated ;  to  prevent  the  benevolence 
of  one  master  from  freeing  his  slaves,  lest  his 
more  selfish  neighbor  should  be  thereby  en- 
riched ;  and  to  leave  the  whole  system  intact, 
until  its  total  abolition  can  be  effected.  Such 
philanthropy  would  leave  every  individual,  of 
suffering  millions,  to  gi'oan  out  a  miserable 
existence,  because  it  could  not  at  once  effect 


COTTON     IS     KING.  229 

the  deliverance  of  the  whole.  This  objection 
to  Colonization  can  be  founded  only  in  preju- 
dice, or  is  designed  to  mislead  the  ignorant. 
The  advocates  of  this  doctrine  do  not  practice 
it,  or  they  would  not  promote  the  escape  of 
fugitives  to  Canada. 

But  Abolitionists  object  not  only  to  the 
Colonization  of  liberated  slaves,  as  tending  to 
perpetuate  slavery ;  they  are  equally  hostile  to 
the  Colonization  of  the  free  colored  people,  for 
the  same  reason.  The  ^'•American  Beform 
Tract  and  Booh  Society^^  the  organ  of  the 
Abolitionists,  for  the  publication  of  Anti- 
Slavery  works,  has  issued  a  Tract  on  "  Coloni- 
zation," in  which  this  objection  is  stated  as 
follows : 

"The  Society  perpetuates  Slavery,  by  re- 
moving the  free  laborer,  and  thereby  increasing 
the  demand  for,  and  the  value  of,  slave  labor." 

The  projectors  and  advocates  of  such  views 
may  be  good  philanthropists,  but  they  are  bad 
philosophers.  We  have  seen  that  the  power 
of  American  slavery  lies  in  the  demand  for  its 
products;  and  that  the  whole  country,  north 


230  COTTON    IS     KING. 

of  the  sugar  and  cotton  States,  is  actively  em- 
ployed in  the  production  of  provisions  for  the 
support  of  the  planter  and  his  slaves,  and  in 
consuming  the  products  of  slave  labor.  This 
is  the  constant  vocation  of  the  whites.  And 
how  is  it  with  the  blacks  ?  Are  they  compet- 
ing with  the  slaves,  in  the  cultivation  of  sugar 
and  cotton,  or  are  they  also  supporting  the  sys- 
tem, by  consuming  its  products  ?  The  latitudes 
in  which  they  reside,  and  the  pursuits  in  which 
they  are  engaged,  will  answer  this  question. 

The  census  of  1850,  shows  but  40,900  free 
colored  persons  in  the  nine  sugar  and  cotton 
States,  including  Texas,  Louisiana,  Arkansas, 
Tennessee,  Mississippi,  Alabama,  Georgia, 
Florida,  and  South  Carolina,  while  393,500 
are  living  in  the  other  States.  North  Carolina 
is  omitted,  because  it  is  more  of  a  tobacco  and 
wool-growing,    than    cotton-producing    State. 

Of  the  free  colored  persons  in  the  first- 
named  States,  19,260  are  in  the  cities  and 
larger  towns ;  while,  of  the  remainder,  a  con- 
siderable number  may  be  in  the  villages,  or  in 
the  families  of  the  whites.     From  these  facts 


COTTON    IS     KING.  231 

it  is  apparent,  that  less  than  20,000  of  the 
entire  free  colored  population  (omitting  those 
of  North  Corolina,)  are  in  a  position  to  com- 
pete with  slave  labor,  while  all  the  remainder, 
numbering  over  412,800,  are  engaged,  either 
directly  or  indirectly,  in  supporting  the  institu- 
tion. Even  the  fugitives  escaping  to  Canada, 
from  ha^-ing  been  producers  necessarily  be- 
come consumers  of  slave-grown  products ; 
and,  worse  still,  under  the  Reciprocity  Treaty, 
they  must  also  become  growers  of  provisions 
for  the  planters  who  continue  to  hold  their 
brothers,  sisters,  wives  and  children,  in 
bondage. 

These  are  the  practical  results  of  the  policy 
of  the  Abolitionists.  Yerily,  they,  also,  have 
dug  their  ditches  on  the  wrong  side  of  their 
breastworks,  and  afforded  the  enemy  an  easy 
entrance  into  their  fortress.  But,  "Let  them 
alone ;  they  be  blind  leaders  of  the  blind.  And 
if  the  blind  lead  the  blind,  both  shall  fall  into 
the  ditch."* 

*  Matthew's  Gospel,  xv:  14. 


232  COTTON    IS    KING. 

But  a  brighter  day  is  dawning  for  tho  free 
colored  people.  They  are  wearied  in  watching 
for  the  "better  time  coming,"  promised  by 
their  white  friends,  and  are  unwilling  to  "wait 
a  little  longer"  as  runs  one  of  their  songs  of 
inaction.  To  collect  their  scattered  fragments, 
to  consolidate  their  divided  forces,  to  sink  their 
individual  popularity  into  an  honored  nation- 
ality, is  now  the  aim  of  some  of  their  thought- 
ful men. 

But  where  is  this  great  achievement  to  be 
made?  ITot  in  the  organization  of  a  new 
government,  as  no  part  of  the  earth  remains 
unoccupied.  It  must  be  a  fusion  with  one 
already  established.  But  what  one  ?  l^ot  with 
one  like  the  British  Colonies,  in  subjection  to  a 
distant  throne,  and  nearly  destitute  of  schools 
and  all  the  means  of  intellectual  and  moral 
improvement.  It  must  be  with  one  possessing 
the  elements  of  progi-ess — which  offers  peace, 
security,  prosperit}^,  liberty,  equality,  and  Pro- 
testant Christianity.  Xo  other  will  meet  their 
wants ;  nor  should  any  other  be  adopted,  as 
worthy  colored  freemen,  who  have  caught  the 


COTTON    IS    KING.  233 

spirit  of  the  republican  institutions  of  the 
United  States.  South  America  can  afford  no 
suitable  asylum,  as  the  diversity  of  language, 
and  the  antagonism  of  its  religion,  together 
with  the  fi'equency  of  its  civil  wars,  and  the 
insecurity  of  property  and  life,  forbid  their 
choosing  a  home  in  that  region. 

Thus,  Liberia  is  the  only  nation  with  which 
a  fusion,  by  the  free  colored  people,  can  be 
safely  made.  "While  remaining  here,  they 
continue  to  support  Slavery,  and  suffer  from 
inadequate  means  of  improvement.  The  only 
portion  of  their  number  who  have  escaped  from 
all  connection  with  slavery,  are  those  who  have 
removed  to  Liberia.  In  that  Republic,  too,  all 
the  necessary  stimulants  to  civil,  social,  intel- 
lectual, and  moral  advancement,  are  within  the 
reach  of  the  colored  man.  IN'or  are  they  left 
to  the  contingencies  of  the  var}^ng  prosperity 
or  adversity  of  the  Colonists  for  their  perpetua- 
tion. The  four  great  leading  Churches  in  the 
United  States — the  Episcopal,  the  Methodist, 
the  Presbyterian,  and  the  Baptist — are  pledged 

to  the  support  of  its  educational  and  religious 

20 


234  COTTON    IS    KING. 

institutions ;  and  hence,  while  generations  will 
certainly  be  needed  for  the  elevation  of  the  free 
colored  people  here,  strive  as  they  may,  a 
single  one,  with  right-hearted  men  can  do  the 
work  there. 


CHAFTEE   XYI 


Topic  4.— The  moral  relations  of  persons  holding  the  per  se  doc- 
trine, on  the  subject  of  slavery,  to  the  purchase  and  consumption 
of  slave  labor  products. 


Haying  noticed  the  political  and  economi- 
cal relations  of  slavery,  it  may  be  expected  that 
we  shall  say  something  of  its  moral  relations. 
In  attempting  this,  we  choose  not  to  ti-averse 
that  interminable  labyrinth,  without  a  thread, 
which  includes  the  moral  character  of  the  sys- 
tem, as  it  respects  The  relation  hetween  the 
Master  and  the  Slave.  The  only  aspect  in 
which  we  care  to  consider  it,  is  in  The  moral 
relations  which  the  consumers  of  Slave  Lahor 
products  sustain  to  Slavery:  and  even  on 
this,  we  shall  offer  no  opinion,  om*  aim  being 
only  to  promote  inquiry. 

This  view  of  the  question  is  not  an  unim- 
portant one.  It  includes  the  germ  of  the  grand 
error  in  nearly  aU  Anti-Slavery  effort ;  and  to 

235 


236  COTTON    IS    KING. 

which,  chiefly,  is  to  be  attributed  its  want  of 
moral  power  over  the  conscience  of  the  slave- 
holder. The  recent  Abolition  movement,  was 
designed  to  create  a  public  sentiment,  in  the 
United  States,  that  should  be  equally  as  potent 
in  forcing  emancipation,  as  was  the  public 
opinion  of  Great  Britain.  But  why  have  not 
the  Americans  been  as  successful  as  the  Eng- 
lish ?  This  is  an  inquiry  of  great  importance. 
"WTien  the  Anti-Slavery  Convention,  which 
met,  December  6,  1833,  in  Philadelphia,  de- 
clared, as  a  part  of  its  creed:  "That  there  is 
no  difference  in  principle,  between  the  African 
Slave  Trade,  and  American  slavery,"  it  meant 
to  be  understood  as  teaching,  that  the  person 
who  purchased  slaves  imported  from  Africa, 
or  who  held  their  offspring  as  slaves,  was^^^^r- 
ticeps  C7'imi?i{s — partaker  in  the  crime,  with 
the  slave  ti'ader — on  the  principle  that  he  who 
receives  stolen  property,  knowing  it  to  be  such, 
is  equally  guilty  with  the  thief. 

On  this  point  Daniel  O'Connell  was  very 
explicit,  when,  in  a  public  assembly,  he  used 
this  language:    "When  an  American   comes 


COTTON    IS     KING.  237 

into  society,  he  will  be  askecl,  'are  you  one  of 
the  thieves,  or  are  yon  an  honest  man  ?  K 
you  are  an  honest  man,  then  yon  have  given 
liberty  to  your  slaves ;  if  you  are  among  the 
thieves,  the  sooner  you  take  the  outside  of  the 
house,  the  better.' " 

The  error  just  referred  to  was  this:  they 
based  their  opposition  to  slavery  on  the  princi- 
ple, that  it  was  malum,  in  se — a  sin  in  itself — ■ 
like  the  slave  trade,  robbery,  and  murder ;  and, 
at  the  same  time,  continued  to  use  the  products 
of  the  labor  of  the  slave  as  though  they  had 
been  obtained  fi-om  the  labor  of  freemen.  But 
this  seeming  inconsistency  was  not  the  only 
reason  why  they  failed  to  create  such  a  public 
sentiment  as  would  procure  the  emancipation 
of  our  slaves.  The  English  Emancipationists 
began  their  work  like  philosophers — addressing 
themselves  respectfully,  to  the  power  that  could 
grant  their  requests.  Beside  the  moral  argu- 
ment, which  declared  slavery  a  crime,  the 
English  philanthropists  labored  to  convince 
Parliament,  that  emancipation  would  be  ad- 
vantageous  to   the  commerce  of   the  nation. 


238  COTTON     IS     KING. 

The  commercial  value  of  the  Islands  had  been 
reduced  one-third,  as  a  result  of  the  abolition 
of  the  slave  trade.  Emancipation,  it  was 
argued,  would  more  than  restore  their  former 
prosperity,  as  the  labor  of  freemen  was  twice 
as  productive  as  that  of  slaves.  But  American 
Abolitionists  commenced  their  crusade  against 
slavery,  by  charging  those  who  sustained  it, 
and  w^ho  alone,  held  the  power  to  manumit, 
with  crimes  of  the  blackest  die.  This  placed 
the  parties  in  instant  antagonism,  causing  all 
the  arguments  on  human  rights,  and  the  sinful- 
ness of  slavery,  to  fall  without  effect  upon  the 
ears  of  angiy  men.  The  error  on  this  point, 
consisted  in  failing  to  discriminate  between  the 
sources  of  the  power  over  emancipation  in 
England  and  in  the  United  States.  With 
Great  Britain,  the  power  was  in  Parliament. 
The  masters,  in  the  West  Indies,  had  no  voice 
in  the  question.  It  was  the  voters  in  England 
alone  who  controlled  the  elections,  and,  conse- 
quently, controlled  Parliament.  But  the  con- 
dition of  things  in  the  United  States  is  the 
reverse  of  what  it  was  in  England.     With  us, 


COTTON    IS     KING.  239 

the  power  of  emancipation  is  in  the  States,  not 
in  Congress.  The  slaveholders  elect  the  mem- 
bers to  the  State  Legislatures ;  and  they  choose 
none  but  such  as  agree  with  them  in  opinion. 
It  matters  not,  therefore,  what  public  sentiment 
may  be  at  the  ISTorth,  as  it  has  no  power  over 
the  Legislatures  of  the  South.  Here,  then,  is 
the  difference:  with  us  the  slaveholder  con- 
trols the  question  of  emancipation  while  in 
England  the  consent  of  the  master  was  not 
necessary  to  the  execution  of  that  work. 

Our  Anti-Slavery  men  seem  to  have  fallen 
into  their  errors  of  policy,  by  following  the  lead 
of  those  of  England,  who  manifested  a  total 
ignorance  of  the  relations  existing  between  our 
General  Government  and  the  State  Govern- 
ments. On  the  Abolition  platform,  slavehold- 
ers found  themselves  placed  on  the  same  cate- 
gory with  slave  traders  and  thieves.  They 
were  told  that  all  laws  giving  them  power  over 
the  slave,  were  void  in  the  sight  of  heaven; 
and  that  their  appropriation  of  the  fruits  of  the 
labor  of  the  slave  was  robbery.  Had  the 
preaching  of  these  principles  produced  convic- 


24:0  COTTON    IS    KING. 

tion,  it  must  have  promoted  emancipation. 
But,  unfortunately,  while  these  doctrines  were 
held  up  to  the  gaze  of  slaveholders,  in  the  one 
hand  of  the  exhorter,  they  beheld  his  other 
hand  stretched  out,  from  beneath  his  cloak 
of  seeming  sanctity,  to  clutch  the  products  of 
the  very  robbery  he  was  professing  to  con- 
demn !  Take  a  fact  in  proof  of  this  view  of  the 
subject. 

At  the  date  of  the  declarations  of  Daniel 
O'CoNNELL,  on  behalf  of  the  English,  and  by 
the  Philadelphia  Anti-Slavery  Convention,  on 
the  part  of  Americans,  the  British  manu- 
facturers were  purchasing,  annually,  about 
300,000,000  lbs.  of  cotton,  from  the  very  men 
denounced  as  equally  criminal  with  slave 
traders  and  thieves ;  and  the  people  of  the 
United  States  were  almost  wholly  dependent 
upon  slave  labor  for  their  supplies  of  cotton 
and  groceries.  It  is  no  matter  for  wonder, 
therefore,  that  slaveholders,  should  treat,  as 
fiction,  the  doctrine  that  slave  labor  products 
are  the  fruits  of  robbery,  so  long  as  they  are 
purchased  without  scruple,  by  all  classes  of 


COTTON    IS     KING.  241 

men,  in  Europe  and  America.  The  pecuniary 
argmnent  for  emancipation,  that  free  labor  is 
more  profitable  than  slave  labor,  was  also 
urged  here;  but  was  treated  as  the  greatest 
absm-dity.  The  masters  had,  before  their  eyes, 
the  evidence  of  the  falsity  of  the  assertion,  that, 
if  emancipated,  the  slaves  would  be  doubly 
profitable  as  free  laborers.  The  reverse  was 
admitted,  on  all  hands,  to  be  ti'ue  in  rela- 
tion to  our  colored  people. 

But  this  question,  of  the  moral  relations 
which  the  consumers  of  slave  labor  products 
sustain  to  slavery,  is  one  of  too  important  a 
nature  to  be  passed  over  without  a  closer 
examination ;  and,  beside,  it  is  involved  in 
less  obscurity  than  the  morality  of  the  relation 
existing  between  the  master  and  the  slave.  Its 
consideration,  too,  afibrds  an  opportunity  of 
discriminating  between  the  different  opinions 
entertained  on  the  broad  question  of  the  mo- 
rality of  the  institution,  and  enables  us  to  judge 
of  the  consistency  and  conscientiousness  of 
every  man,  by  the  standard  which  he  himself 

adopts. 

21 


243  COTTON    IS     KING. 

The  prevalent  opinions,  as  to  the  morality 
of  the  Institution  of  Slavery,  in  the  United 
States,  may  be •  classified  under  three  heads: 
1.  That  it  is  justified  by  Scripture  example 
and  precept.  2.  That  it  is  a  great  civil  and 
social  evil,  resulting  from  ignorance  and 
degradation,  like  despotic  systems  of  Govern- 
ment, and  may  be  tolerated  until  its  subjects 
are  sufficiently  enlightened  to  render  it  safe  to 
grant  them  equal  rights.  3.  That  it  is  malum 
in  se^  like  robbery  and  murder,  and  can  not  be 
sustained,  for  a  moment,  without  sin ;  and,  like 
sin,  should  be  immediately  abandoned. 

Those  who  consider  slaveiy  sanctioned  by 
the  Bible,  conceive  that  they  can,  consistently 
with  their  creed,  not  only  hold  slaves,  and  use 
the  products  of  slave  labor,  without  doing  vio- 
lence to  their  consciences,  but  may  adopt 
measures  to  perpetuate  the  system.  Those 
who  consider  slavery  merely  a  great  civil  and 
social  evil,  a  despotism  that  may  engender 
oppression,  or  may  not,  are  of  opinion  that 
they  may  purchase  and  use  its  products,  or 
interchange  their  own  for  those  of  the  slave- 


COTTON    IS     KING.  M9 

holder,  as  free  governments  hold  commercial 
and  diplomatic  intercom'se  with  despotic  ones, 
without  being  responsible  for  the  moral  evils 
connected  with  the  system.  But  the  position 
of  those  who  believe  slavery  malum  in  se^  like 
the  slave  trade,  robbery,  and  murder,  is  a  very 
different  one  from  either  of  the  other  classes,  as  it 
regards  the  pm-chase  and  use  of  slave  labor  pro- 
ducts. Let  us  illustrate  this  by  a  case  in  point: 
A  company  of  men  hold  a  number  of  their 
fellow  men  in  bondage  under  the  laws  of  the 
commonwealth  in  which  they  live,  so  that  they 
can  compel  them  to  work  their  plantations,  and 
raise  horses,  cattle,  hogs,  and  cotton.  These 
products  of  the  labor  of  the  oppressed,  are  ap- 
propriated by  the  oppressors  to  their  own  use, 
and  taken  into  the  markets  for  sale.  Another 
company  proceed  to  a  community  of  freemen, 
on  the  coast  of  Africa,  who  have  labored  vol- 
untarily during  the  year,  seize  their  persons, 
bind  them,  convey  away  their  horses,  cattle, 
hogs,  and  cotton,  and  take  the  property  to 
market.  The  first  association  represents  the 
slaveholders;    the  second  a  band  of  robbers. 


244:  COTTON    IS    KING. 

The  commodities  of  both  parties,  are  openly 
offered  for  sale,  and  every  one  knows  how  the 
property  of  each  was  obtained.  Those  who 
believe  the  jper  se  doctrine,  place  both  these 
associations  in  the  same  moral  category,  and 
call  them  robbers.  Judged  by  this  rule,  the 
first  band  are  the  more  criminal,  as  they  have 
deprived  their  victims  of  personal  Hberty, 
forced  them  into  servitude,  and  then  "des- 
poiled them  of  the  fruits  of  their  labor."*  The 
second  band  have  only  deprived  their  victims 
of  liberty,  while  they  robbed  them ;  and  thus 
have  committed  but  two  crimes,  while  the  first 
have  perpetrated  three.  These  parties  at- 
tempt to  negotiate  the  sale  of  their  cotton,  say 
in  London.  The  first  company  dispose  of 
their  cargo  without  difficulty — no  one   mani- 


*This  is  the  phrase,  nearly  verbatim,  used  by  Mr.  Sum- 
ner in  his  speech  on  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill.  Language,  a 
little  more  to  the  point,  is  used  in  "  The  Friendly  Remon- 
strance of  the  People  of  Scotland,  on  the  Subject  of  Slavery," 
published  in  the  American  Missionary,  September,  1855.  In 
depicting  slavery  it  speaks  of  it  as  a  system  "  •which  robs  its 
Victims  of  the  fniits  of  their  toil." 


COTTON    IS     KING.  245 

festing  the  slightest  scruple  at  purchasing  the 
products  of  slave  labor.  But  the  second  com- 
pany are  not  so  fortunate.  As  soon  as  their 
true  character  is  ascertained,  the  police  drag 
its  members  to  Court,  where  they  are  sen- 
tenced to  Bridewell.  In  vain  do  these  robbers 
quote  the  Philadelphia  A nti -Slavery  Conven- 
tion, and  Daniel  O'Connel,  to  prove  that  their 
cotton  was  obtained  by  means  no  more  criminal 
than  that  of  the  slaveholders,  and  that,  there- 
fore, judgment  ought  to  be  reversed.  The 
Court  will  not  entertain  such  a  plea,  and  they 
have  to  endure  the  penalty  of  the  law.  !N"ow, 
why  this  difference,  if  slavery  be  malum  in  sef 
And  if  the  receiver  of  stolen  property  is  par- 
ticeps  criminis  with  the  thief,  why  is  it,  that 
the  Englishman,  who  should  receive  and  sell 
the  cotton  of  the  robbers,  would  run  the  risk 
of  being  sent  to  prison  with  them,  while  if  he 
acted  as  agent  of  the  slaveholders,  he  would  be 
treated  as  an  honorable  man?  K  the  master 
has  no  moral  right  to  hold  his  slaves,  in  what 
respect  can  the  products  of  their  labor  differ 
from  the  property  acquired  by  robbery  ?     And 


£4$  COTTON     IS     KING. 

if  the  property  be  the  fruits  of  robbery,  how 
can  any  one  use  it,  without  violating  con- 
science ? 

We  have  met  with  the  following  sage  ex- 
position of  the  question,  in  justification  of  the 
use  of  slave  labor  products,  by  those  who  be- 
lieve the^^T'  se  doctrine:  The  master  owns  the 
lands,  gives  his  skill  and  intelligence  to  direct 
the  labor,  and  feeds  and  clothes  the  slaves. 
The  slaves,  therefore,  are  entitled  only  to  a 
part  of  the  proceeds  of  their  labor,  while  the 
master  is  also  justly  entitled  to  a  part  of  the 
crop.  "When  brought  into  the  market,  the  pur- 
chaser can  not  know  what  part  belongs,  right- 
fully, to  the  master  and  what  to  his  slaves,  as 
the  whole  is  offered  in  bulk.  He  may,  there- 
fore, purchase  the  whole,  innocently,  and  throw 
the  sinfulness  of  the  transaction  upon  the 
master,  who  sells  what  belongs  to  others.  But 
if  \heper  se  doctrine  be  true,  this  apology  for 
the  purchaser  is  not  a  justification.  Where  a 
"  confusion  of  goods  "  has  been  made  by  one 
of  the  owners,  so  that  they  can  not  be  sepa- 
rated, he  who  "  confused "  them  can  have  no 


COTTON     IS     KING.  247 

advantage,  in  law,  from  his  own  wrong,  but  the 
goods  are  awarded  to  the  innocent  party.  On 
this  well  known  principle  of  law,  this  most 
equitable  rule,  the  master  forfeits  his  right  in 
the  property,  and  the  purchaser,  knowing  the 
facts,  becomes  a  party  in  his  guilt.  But  aside 
from  this,  the  "confusion  of  goods,"  by  the 
master,  can  give  him  no  moral  right  to  dispose 
of  the  interest  of  his  slaves  therein  for  his  own 
benefit;  and  the  persons  purchasing  such 
property,  acquire  no  moral  right  to  its  posses- 
sion and  use.  These  are  sound,  logical  views. 
The  argument  offered,  in  justification  of  those 
who  hold  that  slavery  is  malum  in  se,  is  the 
strongest  that  can  be  made.  It  is  apparent, 
then,  from  a  fair  analysis  of  their  own  prin- 
ciples, that  they  are  parti oeps  criminis  with 
slaveholders. 

Again,  if  the  laws  regulating  the  institution 
of  slavery,  be  morally  null  and  void,  and  not 
binding  on  the  conscience,  then  the  slaves  have 
a  moral  right  to  the  proceeds  of  their  labor. 
This  right  can  not  be  alienated  by  any  act  of 
the  master,  but  attaches  to  the  property  where 


248  COTTON     IS     KING. 

ever  it  may  be  taken,  and  to  whomsoever  it 
may  be  sold.  This  principle,  in  law,  is  also 
well  established.  The  recent  decision  on  the 
"  Gardiner  fraud,"  confirms  it ;  the  Court  as- 
serting, that  the  money  paid  out  of  the  Treas- 
ury of  the  United  States,  under  such  circum- 
stances, continued  its  character  as  the  money 
and  property  of  the  United  States,  and  may 
be  followed  into  the  hands  of  those  who  cashed 
the  orders  of  Gardiner,  and  subsequently  drew 
the  money,  but  who  are  not  the  true  owners 
of  the  said  fund;  and  decreeing  that  the 
amount  of  funds,  thus  obtained,  be  collected 
off  the  estate  of  said  Gardiner,  and  off  those 
who  drew  fands  from  the  Treasury,  on  his 
orders. 

These  principles  of  law  are  so  well  under- 
stood, by  every  man  of  intelligence,  that  we 
can  not  conceive  how  those  advocating  the 
jper  se  doctrines,  if  sincere,  can  continue  in 
the  constant  use  of  slave  grown  products, 
without  a  perpetual  violation  of  conscience  and 
of  all  moral  law.  Taking  them  under  protest^ 
against  the  slavery  which  produced  them,  is 


COTTON     IS     KING.  249 

ridiculous.  Reftising  to  fellowship  the  slave- 
holder, while  eagerly  appropriatiDg  the  pro- 
ducts of  the  labor  of  the  slave,  which  he  brings 
in  his  hand,  is  contemptible.  The  most  noted 
case  of  the  kind,  is  that  of  the  British  Com- 
mittee, who  had  charge  of  the  preliminaiy  ar- 
rangements for  the  admission  of  members  to 
the  World's  Christian  Evangelical  Alli- 
ance. One  of  the  rules  it  adopted,  but  which 
the  Alliance  afterward  modified,  excluded  all 
American  clergymen,  suspected  of  a  want  of 
orthodoxy  on  the  jper  se  doctiine,  from  seats 
in  that  body.  Their  language,  to  American 
clergymen,  was  virtually,  "Stand  aside,  I  am 
holier  than  thou ;"  while,  at  the  same  moment, 
their  parishioners,  the  manufacturers,  had 
about  completed  the  purchase  of  62tl:,000,000 
lbs.  of  cotton,  for  the  consumption  of  their 
mills,  during  the  year ;  the  bales  of  which, 
piled  together,  would  have  reached  mountain- 
high,  displaying,  mostly,  the  brands,  "^ew 
Orleans,"  "  Mobile,"  "  Charleston." 

As  not  a  word  was  said,  by  the  Committee, 
against  the  Englishmen  who  were  buying  and 


250  COTTON     IS     KING. 

manufacturing  American  cotton,  the  case  may 
be  viewed  as  one  in  which  the  fruits  of  rob- 
bery were  taken  under  protest  against  the 
robbers  themselves.  To  all  intelligent  men, 
the  conduct  of  the  people  of  Britain,  in  pro- 
testing against  slavery,  as  a  system  of  rob- 
bery, while  continuing  to  purchase  such  enor- 
mous quantities  of  the  cotton  produced  by 
slaves,  appears  as  Pharisaical  as  the  conduct 
of  the  conscientious  Scotchman,  in  early  times, 
in  Eastern  Pennsylvania,  who  married  his 
wife  under  protest  against  the  Constitution  and 
laws  of  the  Government,  and  especially,  against 
the  authority,  power,  and  right  of  the  magis- 
trate who  had  just  tied  the  knot.* 

*  An  anecdote,  illustrative  of  the  pliability  of  some  con- 
sciences, of  this  apparently  rigid  class,  where  interest  or 
inclination  demands  it,  has  often  been  told  by  the  late 
Governor  Morrow,  of  Ohio.  An  old  Scotch  "  Cameronian," 
in  Eastern  Pennsylvania,  became  a  widower,  shortly  after 
the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  He 
refused  to  acknowledge  either  the  IS'ational  or  State  Govern- 
ments, but  pronounced  them  both  unlawful,  unrighteous, 
and  ungodly.  Soon  he  began  to  feel  the  want  of  a  wife,  to 
care  for  his  motherless  children.     The  consent  of  a  woman 


COTTON     IS     KING.  251 

Such  pliable  coDsciences,  doubtless,  are 
very  convenient  in  cases  of  emergency.  But 
as  they  relax  when  selfish  ends  are  to  be  sub- 
served, and  retain  their  rigidity  only  when 
judging  the  conduct  of  others,  the  inference  is, 
that  the  persons  possessing  them  are  either 
hypocritical,  or  else,  as  was  acknowledged  by 


in  his  own  Church  was  gained,  because  to  take  any  other 
would  have  been  like  an  Israelite  marrying  a  daughter  of 
the  land  of  Canaan.  On  this  point,  as  in  refusing  to  swear 
allegiance  to  Government,  he  was  controlled  by  conscience. 
But  now  a  practical  difficulty  presented  itself.  There  was 
no  minister  of  his  church  in  the  country — and  those  of  other 
denominations,  in  his  judgment,  had  no  Divine  warrant  for 
exercising  the  functions  of  the  sacred  office.  He  repudiated 
the  whole  of  them.  But  how  to  get  married,  that  was  the 
problem.  He  tried  to  persuade  his  intended  to  agree  to  a 
marriage  contract,  before  witnesses,  which  could  be  con- 
firmed whenever  a  proper  minister  should  airive  from 
Scotland.  But  his  "lady-love"  would  not  consent  to  the 
plan.  She  must  be  married  "  like  other  folk,"  or  not  at 
all — because  "  people  would  talk  so."  The  Scotchman  for 
want  of  a  wife,  like  Great  Britain  for  want  of  cotton,  saw 
very  plainly  that  his  children  must  suflfer;  and  so  he 
resolved  to  get  maiTied  at  all  hazards,  as  England  buys  her 
cotton,  but  so  as  not  to  violate  conscience.     Proceeding  with 


252  COTTON    IS     KING. 

Parson  D.,  in  similar  circumstances,  they 
have  mistaken  their  prejudices  for  their  con- 
sciences. 

So  far  as  Britain  is  concerned,  she  is,  mani- 
festly, much  more  willing  to  receive  American 
slave  labor  cotton  for  her  factories,  than  Ameri- 
can republican  principles  for  her  people.  And 
why  so?  The  profits  derived  by  her,  from  the 
purchase  and  manufacture  of  slave  labor  cotton, 
constitute  so  large  a  portion  of  the  means  of 
her  prosperity,  that  the  Government  could  not 
sustain  itself  were  the  supplies  of  this  article 

his  iutended  to  a  magistrate's  office,  the  ceremony  was  soon 
performed,  and  they  twain  pronounced  "  one  flesh."  But 
no  sooner  had  he  "kissed  the  bride,"  the  sealing  act  of  the 
contract  of  that  day,  than  the  good  Cameronian  drew  a 
written  document  from  his  pocket,  which  he  read  aloud 
before  the  officer  and  witnesses ;  and  in  which  he  entered 
his  solemn  protest  against  the  authority  of  the  Government 
of  the  United  States,  against  that  of  the  State  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  especially  against  the  power,  right,  and  lawful- 
ness of  the  acts  of  the  magistrate  who  had  just  married  him. 
This  done,  he  went  his  way,  rejoicing  that  he  had  secured 
a  wife  without  recognizing  the  lawfulness  of  ungodly 
governments,  or  violating  his  conscience. 


COTTON    IS    KING.  253 

cut  off.  It  is  easy  to  divine,  therefore,  why  the 
people  of  England  are  boundless  in  their  de- 
nunciation of  American  slavery,  while  not  a 
single  remonstrance  goes  up  to  the  throne, 
against  the  importation  of  American  cotton. 
Should  she  exclude  it,  the  act  would  render  her 
unable  to  pay  the  interest  on  her  national  debt ; 
and  many  a  declaimer  against  slavery,  losing 
his  income,  would  have  to  go  supperless  to 
bed. 

Let  us  conti'ast  the  conduct  of  a  pagan 
government  with  that  of  Great  Britain.  When 
the  Emperor  of  China  became  fully  convinced 
of  his  inability  to  resist  the  prowess  of  the 
British  arms,  in  the  famous  "  Opium  War," 
efforts  were  made  to  induce  him  to  legalize  the 
traffic  in  opium,  by  levying  a  duty  on  its  im- 
port, that  should  yield  him  a  heavy  profit. 
This  he  refused  to  do,  and  recorded  his  decision 
in  these  memorable  words: 

"  It  is  true,  I  can  not  prevent  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  flowing  poison.  Gain-seeking  and 
corrupt  men  will,  for  profit  and  sensuality, 
defeat  my  wishes,  but  nothing  will  induce  me 


254  COTTON     IS     KING. 

to  derive  a  revcDuc  from  the  vice  and  misery 
of  my  people."* 

Let  us  revert  a  moment  to  the  case  of  rob- 
bery, before  cited,  in  further  illustration  of  this 
subject.  The  prisoners  serve  out  their  term  in 
Bridewell,  and,  after  a  year  or  two,  again  visit 
Loudon  with  a  cargo  of  cotton.  The  police 
recognize  them,  and  they  are  a  second  time  ar- 
raigned before  the  court  for  trial.  The  judge  de- 
mands why  they  should  have  dared  to  revisit  the 
soil  of  England,  to  offer  for  sale  the  products  of 
their  robbery.  The  prisoners  assure  his  honor 
that  they  have  neither  outraged  the  public 
sentiment  of  the  kingdom,  nor  violated  its 
laws.  "While  in  your  prison,  sir,"  they  go 
on  to  say,  "  we  became  instructed  in  the  mor- 
als of  British  economics.  Anxious  to  atone 
for  our  former  fault,  and  to  restore  ourselves  to 
the  confidence  and  respect  of  the  pious  subjects 
of  your  most  gracious  Queen,  no  sooner  were 
we  released  from  prison,  than  we  hastened  to 
the   African   coast,  from   whence   our   former 

•  National  Intelligencer,  1854. 


COTTON    13    KING.  265 

cargo  was  obtained,  and  seizing  the  self-same 
men  whom  we  had  formerly  robbed,  we  bore 
them  off,  bodily,  to  the  soil  of  Texas.  They 
resisted  sturdily,  it  is  true,  but  we  mastered 
them.  We  touched  none  of  the  fruits  of  their 
previous  labors.  Their  cotton  we  left  in  the 
fields,  to  be  drenched  by  the  rains  or  drifted 
by  the  winds ;  because,  to  have  brought  it  into 
your  markets  would  have  subjected  us,  anew, 
to  a  place  in  your  dungeons.  In  Texas,  we 
brought  om-  prisoners  under  the  control  of  the 
laws,  which  give  us  power  to  hold  them  as 
slaves.  Stimulated  to  labor,  under  the  lash  of 
the  overseer,  they  have  produced  a  crop  of 
cotton,  which  is  now  offered  in  your  markets 
as  a  lawful  article  of  commerce.  We  are  not 
subjects  of  your  Government,  and,  therefore, 
not  indictable  under  your  laws  against  slave- 
trading.  Your  honor,  will  perceive,  then,  that 
our  moral  relations  are  changed.  We  come 
now  to  your  shores,  not  as  dealers  in  stolen 
property,  but  as  slaveholders  with  the  products 
of  slave  labor.  We  are  aware  that  huiikum, 
speakers,  at  your  public  assemblies,  denounce 


256  COTTON    IS     KING. 

the  slaveholder  as  a  thief,  and  his  appropria- 
tion of  the  fruits  of  the  labor  of  his  slaves,  as 
robbery.  We  comprehend  the  motives  prompt- 
ing such  utterances.  We  come  not  to  attend 
meetings  of  Ecclesiastical  Conventions,  repre- 
senting the  republican  principles  of  America, 
to  unsettle  the  doctrines  upon  which  the  throne 
of  your  kingdom  is  based.  But  we  come  as 
cotton  planters,  to  supply  your  looms  with 
cotton,  that  British  commerce  may  not  be 
abridged,  and  England,  the  great  civilizer  of 
the  world,  may  not  be  forced  to  slack  her  pace 
in  the  performance  of  her  mission.  This  is  our 
character  and  position;  and  your  honor  will 
at  once  see  that  it  is  your  duty,  and  the  inter- 
est of  your  Government  to  treat  us  as  gentle- 
men and  your  most  faithful  allies."  The  judge 
at  once  admits  the  justice  of  their  plea,  rebukes 
the  police,  apologizes  to  the  prisoners,  assures 
them  that  they  have  violated  no  law  of  the 
realm;  and  that,  though  the  j)ublic  sentiment 
of  the  nation  denounces  the  slaveholder  as  a 
thief,  yet  the  public  necessity  demands  a  full 
supply  of  cotton  from  the  planter.     He  then 


COTTON    IS     KING.  257 

orders  their  inimediate  discbarge,  and  invites 
them  to  partake  of  the  hospitalities  of  his  house 
during  their  stay  in  London. 

This  is  a  fair  example  of  British  consist- 
ency, on  the  subject  of  slavery,  so  far  as  the 
supply  of  cotton  is  concerned. 

The  reason  can  now  be  clearly  compre- 
hended, why  Abolitionists  have  had  so  little 
moral  power  over  the  conscience  of  the  slave- 
holder. Their  practice  has  been  inconsistent 
with  their  precepts ;  or,  at  least,  their  conduct 
has  been  liable  to  this  construction,  l^or  do 
we  percieve  how  they  can  exert  a  more  potent 
influence,  in  the  future,  unless  their  energies 
are  directed  to  efforts  such  as  will  relieve  them 
from  a  position  so  inconsistent  with  their  pro- 
fessions, as  that  of  constantly  purchasing  pro- 
ducts which  they,  themselves,  declare  to  be  the 
fruits  of  robbery.  While,  therefore,  things 
remain  as  they  are,  witli  the  world  so  largely 
dependent  upon  slave  labor,  how  can  it  be 
otherwise,  than  that  the  system  will  continue 
to  flourish?     And  while  its  products  are  used 

by  all  classes,  of  every  sentiment,  and  country, 

22 


258  COTTON    IS    KING. 

nearly,  how  can  the  slaveholder  be  brought  to 
see  anything,  in  the  practice  of  the  world,  to 
alarm  his  conscience,  and  make  him  cringe, 
before  his  fellow-men,  as  a  guilty  robber  ? 

But,  has  nothing  worse  occurred  from  the 
advocacy  of  the  jper  se  doctrine,  than  an  exhi- 
bition of  inconsistency  on  the  part  of  Aboli- 
tionists, and  the  perpetuation  of  slavery  re- 
sulting from  their  conduct  ?  This  has  occurred. 
Three  highly  respectable  religious  denomina- 
tions, now  limited  to  the  I^orth,  had  once  many 
flourishing  congregations  in  the  South.  On 
the  adoption  of  the  per  se  doctrine,  by  their 
respective  Synods,  their  congregations  be- 
came disturbed,  were  soon  after  broken  up,  or 
the  ministers  in  charge  had  to  seek  other  fields 
of  labor.  Their  system  of  religious  instruc- 
tion, for  the  family,  being  quite  thorough,  the 
slaves  were  deriving  much  advantage  from  the 
influence  of  these  bodies.  But  when  they 
resolved  to  withhold  the  Gospel  from  the  mas- 
ter, unless  he  would  emancipate,  they  also 
withdrew  the  means  of  grace  from  the  slave ; 
and,  so  far  as  they  were  concerned,  left  him  to 


COTTON    IS     KING.  259 

perish  eternally!  Whether  this  course  was 
proper,  or  whether  it  would  have  beeu  better 
to  have  passed  by  the  morality  of  the  legal 
relation,  in  the  creation  of  which  the  master 
had  no  agency,  and  considered  him,  under 
Providence,  as  the  moral  guardian  of  the  slave, 
bound  to  discharge  a  guardian's  duty  to  an 
immortal  being,  we  shall  not  undertake  to 
determine.  Attention  is  called  to  the  facts, 
merely,  to  show  the  practical  effects  of  the 
action  of  these  Churches  upon  the  slave,  and 
what  the  per  se  doctrine  has  done  in  depriving 
him  of  the  Gospel. 

Another  remark,  and  we  have  done  with 
this  topic.  Kothing  is  more  common,  in  cer- 
tain circles,  than  denunciations  of  the  Christian 
men  and  ministers,  who  refuse  to  adopt  ihQper 
se  principle.  "We  leave  others  to  judge  whether 
these  censures  are  merited.  One  thing  is  cer- 
tain :  those  who  believe  that  slavery  is  a  great 
civil  and  social  evil,  entailed  upon  the  country, 
and  are  extending  the  Gospel  to  both  master 
and  slave,  with  the  hope  of  removing  it  peace- 
ftdly,  can  not  be  reproached  with  acting  incon- 


260  COTTON    IS    KING. 

sistently  with  their  principles  ;  while  those  who 
declare  slavery  malum  in  se^  and  refuse  to 
fellowship  the  Christian  slaveholder,  but  yet 
use  the  products  of  slave  labor,  may  fairly  be 
classified,  on  their  own  principles,  with  the 
hypocritical  people  of  Israel,  who  were  thus 
reproached  by  the  Most  High:  "What  hast 
thou  to  do  to  declare  my  statutes,  or  that  thou 
shouldst  take  my  covenant  in  thy  mouth  ?  *  * 
When  thou  sawest  a  thief,  then  thou  con- 
sentedst  vTith  him."* 

*  Psalm  1:  16,18. 


CO]S"CLUSION. 

In  concluding  our  labors,  there  is  little  need 
of  extended  observation.  The  work  of  Eman- 
cipation, in  our  country,  was  checked,  and  the 
extension  of  slavery  promoted: — first,  by  the 
neglect  of  the  free  colored  people  to  improve 
the  advantages  afibrded  them ;  second,  by  the 
increasing  value  imparted  to  slave  labor ;  third, 
by  the  mistaken  policy  into  which  the  Eng- 
lish and  American  Abolitionists  have  fallen. 
Whatever  reasons  might  now  be  oflfered  for 
emancipation,  from  an  improvement  of  our 
free  colored  people,  is  far  more  than  counter- 
balanced by  its  failure  in  the  West  Indies,  and 
the  constantly  increasing  value  of  the  labor  of 
the  slave.  K,  when  the  planters  had  only  a 
moiety  of  the  markets  for  cotton,  the  value  of 
slavery  was  such  as  to  arrest  emancipation, 
how  must  the  obstacles  be  increased,  now, 
when  they  have  the  monopoly  of  the  markets 
of  the  world  ? 

261 


262  COTTON    IS    KING. 

"We  propose  not  to  speak  of  remedies  for 
slavery.  That  we  leave  to  others.  Thus  far 
this  great  civil  and  social  evil,  has  baffled  all 
human  wisdom.  Either  some  radical  defect 
must  have  existed,  in  the  measm-es  devised  for 
its  removal,  or  the  time  has  not  yet  come  for 
successfully  assailing  the  institution.  Our 
work  is  completed,  in  the  delineation  we  have 
given  of  its  varied  relations  to  om-  agricultural, 
commercial,  and  social  interests.  As  the 
monopoly  of  the  culture  of  cotton,  imparts  to 
slavery  its  economical  value,  the  system  will 
continue  as  long  as  this  monopoly  is  main- 
tained. Slave  labor  products  have  now  become 
necessities  of  human  life,  to  the  extent  of  more 
than  half  the  commercial  articles  supplied  to 
the  Christian  world.  Even  free  labor,  itself, 
is  made  largely  subservient  to  slavery,  and 
vitally  interested  in  its  perpetuation  and  ex- 
tension. 

Can  this  condition  of  things  be  changed? 
It  may  be  reasonably  doubted,  whether  any- 
thing efficient  can  be  speedily  accomplished; 
not  because  there  is  lack  of  territory  where 


COTTON    IS     KING.  263 

freemen  may  be  employed  in  tropical  cultiva- 
tion, as  all  Western  and  Central  Africa,  nearly, 
is  adapted  to  this  pm-pose ;  not  because  intel- 
ligent free  labor,  under  proper  incentives,  is 
less  productive  than  slave  labor ;  but  because 
freemen,  whose  constitutions  are  adapted  to 
tropical  climates,  will  not  avail  themselves  of 
the  opportunity  offered  for  commencing  such 
an  enterprise. 

King  Cotton  cares  not  whether  he  employs 
slaves  or  freemen.  It  is  the  cotton^  not  the 
slaves^  upon  which  his  throne  is  based.  Let 
freemen  do  his  work  as  well,  and  he  will  not 
object  to  the  change.  The  efforts  of  his  most 
powerful  ally,  Great  Britain,  to  promote  that 
object,  have  already  cost  her  people  many 
hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars,  with  total 
failure  as  a  reward  for  her  zeal.  One-sixth  of 
the  colored  people  of  the  United  States  are 
free;  but  they  shun  the  cotton  regions,  and 
have  been  instructed  to  detest  emigration  to 
Liberia.  Their  improvement  has  not  been 
such  as  was  anticipated ;  and  their  more  rapid 
advancement  can  not  be  expected,  while  they 


264  COTTON    IS     KING. 

remain  in  the  country.  The  free  colored  peo- 
ple of  the  British  AYest  Indies,  can  no  longer 
be  relied  on  to  furnish  tropical  products,  for 
they  are  resting  contented  in  a  state  of  almost 
savage  indolence.  Hayti  is  not  in  a  more 
promising  condition ;  and  even  if  it  were,  its 
population  and  territory  are  too  limited  to 
enable  it  too  meet  the  increasing  demand.  His 
Majesty,  King  Cotton,  therefore,  is  forced  to 
continue  the  employment  of  his  slaves ;  and,  by 
their  toil,  is  riding  on,  conquering  and  to 
conquer !  He  receives  no  check  from  the  cries 
of  the  oppressed,  while  the  citizens  of  the  world 
are  dragging  forward  his  chariot,  and  shouting 
aloud  his  praise ! 

King  Cotton  is  a  profound  statesman,  and 
knows  what  measures  will  best  sustain  his 
throne.  He  is  an  acute  mental  philosopher, 
acquainted  with  the  secret  springs  of  human 
action,  and  accurately  perceives  who  can  best 
promote  his  aims.  He  has  no  evidence  that 
colored  men  can  grow  his  cotton,  except  in  the 
capacity  of  slaves.  Thus  far,  all  experiments 
made  to  increase  the  production  of  cotton,  by 


COTTON     IS     KING.  265 

emancipating  the  slaves  employed  in  its  culti- 
vation, have  been  a  total  failm-e.  It  is  his 
policy,  therefore,  to  defeat  all  schemes  of 
emancipation.  To  do  this,  he  stirs  up  snch 
agitations  as  lure  his  enemies  into  measures 
that  will  do  him  no  injury.  The  venal  poli- 
tician is  always  at  his  call,  and  assumes  the 
form  of  saint  or  sinner,  as  the  service  may 
demand.  Isor  does  he  overlook  the  enthu- 
siast, engaged  in  Quixotic  endeavors  for  the 
relief  of  suflering  humanity,  but  influences  him 
to  advocate  measures  which  tend  to  tighten, 
instead  of  loosing  the  bands  of  slavery.  Or,  if 
he  can  not  be  seduced  into  the  support  of  such 
schemes,  he  is  beguiled  into  efforts  that  waste 
his  strength  on  objects  the  most  impracticable ; 
so  that  slavery  receives  no  damage  from  the 
exuberance  of  his  philanthropy.  But  should 
such  a  one,  perceiving  the  futility  of  his  labors, 
and  the  evils  of  his  course,  make  an  attempt  to 
avert  the  consequences  ;  while  he  is  doing  this, 
some  new  recruit  pushed  forward  into  his  for- 
mer place,  charges  him  with  lukewarmness,  or 

pro-slavery  sentiments,  destroys  his  influence 
23 


^06  COTTON    IS     KING. 

with  the  public,  keeps  alive  the  delusions,  and 
sustains  the  supremacy  of  King  Cotton  in  the 
world. 

In  speaking  of  the  economical  connections 
of  slavery,  with  the  other  material  interests  of 
the  world,  we  have  called  it  a  tri-partite  alli- 
ance. It  is  more  than  this.  It  is  quadruple. 
Its  structure  includes  four  parties,  arranged 
thus  :  The  "Western  Agriculturists ;  the  South- 
ern Planters  ;  the  English  Manafacturers  ;  and 
the  American  Abolitionists !  By  this  arrange- 
ment, the  Abolitionists  do  not  stand  in  direct 
contact  with  slavery;  they  imagine,  therefore, 
that  they  have  clean  hands  and  pure  hearts,  so 
far  as  sustaining  the  system  is  concerned.  But 
they,  no  less  than  their  allies,  aid  in  promoting 
the  interests  of  slavery.  Their  sympathies  are 
with  England  on  the  slavery  question,  and  they 
very  naturally  incline  to  agree  with  her  on 
other  points.  She  advocates  Free  Trade^  as 
essential  to  her  manufactures  and  commerce ; 
and  they  do  the  same,  not  waiting  to  inquire 
into  its  bearings  upon  American  Slavery.  We 
refer  now  to  the  people,  not  to  their  leaders, 


COTTON    IS     KING.  26f 

whose  integrity  we  choose  not  to  indorse.  The 
free  trade  and  protective  systems,  in  their  bear- 
ings upon  slavery,  are  so  well  understood,  that 
no  man  of  general  reading,  especially  an  editor, 
or  member  of  Congress,  who  professes  Anti- 
Slavery  sentiments,  at  the  same  time  advo- 
cating free  trade,  will  ever  convince  men  of 
intelligence,  pretend  what  he  may,  that  he  is 
not  either  woefully  perverted  in  his  judgment, 
or  emphatically,  a  "  dough-face  "  in  disguise  ! 
England,  we  were  about  to  say,  is  in  alliance 
with  the  cotton  planter,  to  whose  prosperity 
free  trade  is  indispensable.  Abolitionism  is 
in  alliance  with  England.  All  three  of  these 
parties,  then  agree  in  their  support  of  the 
free  trade  policy.  It  needed  but  the  aid  of  the 
Western  farmer,  therefore,  to  give  permanency 
to  this  principle.  His  adhesion  has  been  given, 
the  quadruple  alliance  has  been  perfected,  and 
slavery  and  fr-ee  ti'ade  nationalized  I 

Slavery,  thus  entrenched  in  the  midst  of 
such  powerful  allies,  and  without  competition 
in  tropical  cultivation,   has  become  the  sole 


268  COTTON     IS     KING. 

reliance  of  King  Cotton.  Lest  the  sources  of 
his  aggrandisement  should  be  assailed,  we  can 
well  imagine  him  as  being  engaged,  constantly, 
in  devising  new  questions  of  agitation,  to 
divert  the  public  from  all  attempts  to  abandon 
free  trade  and  restore  the  protective  policy. 
He  now  finds  an  ample  source  of  security,  in 
this  respect,  in  agitating  the  question  of  slavery 
extension.  This  exciting  topic,  as  we  have 
said,  serves  to  keep  politicians  of  the  Abolition 
school  at  the  Korth  in  his  constant  employ. 
But  for  the  agitation  of  this  subject,  few  of 
these  men  would  succeed  in  obtaining  the 
suflfrages  of  the  people.  Wedded  to  England's 
free  trade  policy,  their  votes  in  Congress,  on 
all  questions  affecting  the  tariff,  are  always  in 
perfect  harmony  with  Southern  interests,  and 
work  no  mischief  to  the  system  of  slavery.  If 
Kansas  comes  into  the  Union  as  a  slave  State, 
he  is  secure  in  the  political  power  it  will  give  him 
in  Congress  ;  but  if  it  is  received  as  a  free  State, 
it  will  still  be  ti-ibutary  to  him,  as  a  source 
from  whence  to  draw  provisions  to  feed  his 
slaves.     'Nov  does  it  matter  much  which  way 


COTTON    IS     KING.  269 

the  controversy  is  decided,  so  long  as  all  agree 
not  to  disturb  slavery  in  the  States  where  it  ia 
abeady  established  by  law.  Could  King  Cot- 
ton be  assured  that  this  position  will  not  be 
abandoned,  he  would  care  little  about  slavery 
in  Kansas;  but  he  knows  full  well  that  the 
public  sentiment  in  the  Xorth  is  adverse  to  the 
system,  and  that  the  present  race  of  politicians 
may  readily  be  displaced  by  others  who  will 
pledge  themselves  to  its  overthrow  in  all  the 
States  of  the  Union.  Hence  he  wills  to  retain 
the  power  over  the  question  in  his  own  hands. 
The  crisis  now  upon  the  country,  as  a  con- 
sequence of  slavery  having  become  dominant, 
demands  that  the  highest  wisdom  should  be 
brought  to  the  management  of  national  affairs. 
Slavery,  nationalized^  can  now  be  managed 
only  as  a  national  concern.  It  can  now  be 
abolished  only  with  the  consent  of  those  who 
sustain  it.  Their  assent  can  be  gained  only 
on  employing  other  agents  to  meet  the  wants 
it  now  supplies.  It  must  be  superseded,  then, 
if  at  all,  by  means  that  will  not  injuriously 
affect  the  interests  of  commerce  and  agricul- 


270  COTTON     IS     KING. 

ture,  to  -whicli  it  is  now  so  important  an  aux- 
iliary. None  other  will  be  accepted,  for  a 
moment,  by  the  slaveholder.  To  supply  the 
existing  demand  for  tropical  products,  except 
by  the  present  mode,  is  impossible.  To  make 
the  change,  is  not  the  work  of  a  day,  nor  of  a 
generation.  Should  the  influx  of  foreigners 
continue,  such  a  change  may,  one  day,  be 
possible.  But  to  effect  the  transition  from 
slavery  to  freedom,  on  principles  that  will  be 
acceptable  to  the  parties  who  control  the  ques- 
tion; to  devise  and  successfully  sustain  such 
measures  as  will  produce  this  result ;  must  be 
left  to  statesmen  of  broader  views  and  loftier 
conceptions  than  are  to  be  found  among  those 
at  present  engaged  in  this  great  controversy. 

In  noticing  the  strategy  by  which  the  Abo- 
litionists were  rendered  subservient  to  slavery, 
through  the  ignorance  or  duplicity  of  their 
leaders,  we  refer  to  the  political  action,  only, 
in  which  they  were  induced  to  participate. 
We  yield  to  none  in  our  veneration  for  the 
early  Anti-Slavery  men,  whose  zeal  for  the 
overthrow  of  oppression,  and  the  relief  of  the 


COTTON    IS     KING.  271 

country  from  what  they  considered  its  greatest 
curse,  was  kindled  at  the  altar  of  a  pui-e  philan- 
thropy ;  and  to  whom  official  honors  and  emolu- 
ments had  few  atti^actions.  We  intend  not  to 
disparage  such  men. 

Those  who  believe  that  slavery  is  a  Divine 
Institution^  which  should  be  perpetuated;  as 
well  as  those  who  hold  the  sentiment,  that  it  is 
a  malum  in  se^  that  must  be  instantly  aban- 
doned; entertain  views  so  much  at  variance 
with  the  practical  judgment  of  the  world,  that 
they  can  never  hope  to  see  their  principles 
become  dominant.  The  doctrine  of  the  Divine 
right  of  Slavery^  is  as  repugnant  to  the  spirit 
of  the  age,  as  that  of  the  Divine  right  of 
Kings  or  of  Pojpes.  Thej?er  se  doctrine,  more 
plausible  at  first  view,  is  everywhere  practically 
repudiated  in  the  business  ti-ansactions  of  the 
world ;  and  involves  Christians  who  profess  it, 
not  only  in  every-day  inconsistencies,  but  bars 
their  access  to  the  master,  and  dooms  the  slave 
to  perpetual  ignorance. 

These  two  extreme  views  can  not  become 
prevalent ;    but    must    remain    circumscribed 


272  COTTON    IS    KING. 

within  the  narrow  limits  to  which  they  have 
been  hitherto  confined.  It  is  well  for  the 
country  that  it  is  so.  These  parties  are  so 
antagonistic,  that  their  policy  has  harmonized 
in  nothing  but  the  triumph  of  slavery,  and  the 
increase  of  the  dangers  of  a  dissolution  of  the 
Union. 

The  view,  that  slavery  is  a  great  Civil  and 
Social  evil^  identical  in  jprincijple  with  Des- 
potism^ is  beset  with  fewer  difficulties,  meets 
with  less  opposition,  and  is  likely  to  become 
the  prevalent  belief  of  the  world.  This  view 
maintains  that  slavery  is  an  incubus,  pressing 
on  humanity,  like  despotism  in  any  other 
form ;  and  sinful^  ^^J-)  so  far  as  it  abuses  its 
power.  This  liability  to  abuse,  it  is  admitted, 
is  increased  under  American  slavery,  from  the 
fact,  that  while  a  single  despot  often  governs 
many  millions  of  subjects,  with  us,  three  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  masters  rule  over  but 
three  millions  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
slaves;  subjecting  them,  not  to  uniform  laws, 
but  to  an  endless  diversity  of  treatment,  as 
benevolence  or  cupidity  may  dictate. 


COTTON    IS     KING.  273 

How  far  masters  in  general  escape  the  com- 
mission of  sin,  in  the  treatment  of  their  slaves, 
or  whether  any  are  free  from  guilt,  is  not  the 
point  at  issue,  in  this  view  of  slavery.  The 
mere  possession  of  power  over  the  slave,  under 
the  sanction  of  law,  is  held  not  to  be  sinful ; 
but,  like  despotism,  may  be  used  for  the  good 
of  the  governed.  Here  arises  a  question  of 
importance :  Can  despotism  be  acknowlged  by 
Christians  as  a  lawful  form  of  government? 
Those  who  hold  the  view  of  slavery  under  con- 
sideration, answer  in  the  affirmative.  The 
necessity  of  civil  government,  they  say,  is  de- 
nied by  none.  Society  can  not  exist  in  its 
absence.  Republicanism  can  be  sustained  only 
where  the  majority  are  intelligent  and  moral. 
In  no  other  condition  can  free  government 
be  maintained.  Hence,  despotism  establishes 
itself,  of  necessity,  more  or  less  absolutely,  over 
an  ignorant  or  depraved  people ;  obtaining  the 
acquiescence  of  the  enlightened,  by  offering 
them  security  to  person  and  property.  Few 
nations,  indeed,  possess  moral  elevation  suf- 
ficient to  maintain  republicanism.     Many  have 


274  COTTON     IS     KING. 

tried  it;  have  failed,  and  relapsed  into  des- 
potism. Republican  nations,  therefore,  must 
forego  all  intercourse  with  despotic  govern- 
ments, or  acknowledge  them  to  be  lawful. 
This  can  be  done,  it  is  claimed,  without  being 
accountable  for  moral  evils  connected  with  their 
administration.  Elevated  examples  of  such 
recognitions  are  on  record.  Christ  paid  tribute 
to  Caesar ;  and  Paul,  by  appealing  to  Caesar's 
tribunal,  admitted  the  validity  of  the  despotic 
government  of  Rome,  with  its  thirty  millions  of 
slaves.  To  deny  the  lawfulness  of  despotism, 
and  yet  hold  intercourse  with  such  govern- 
ments, is  as  inconsistent  as  to  hold  the  jper  se 
doctrine,  in  regard  to  slavery,  and  still  continue 
to  use  its  products.  Slavery  and  despotism 
being  identical  in  principle,  it  follows  that  the 
considerations  which  justify  the  recognition  of 
the  one,  will  apply  equally  to  the  other. 

Another  thought,  in  this  connection,  crowds 
itself  upon  the  attention,  and  demands  a  hear- 
ing. Despotism,  though  recognized  as  lawful, 
from  necessity,  is  repugnant  to  enlightened  and 
moral  men.     The  notions  of  equity,  everywhere 


COTTON    IS    KING.  275 

prevailing,  makes  them  revolt  at  the  idea  of 
despotism  contimiing  perpetually.  But  con- 
timie  it  will,  in  one  form  or  another,  until  ig- 
norance is  banished,  and  the  moral  elevation  of 
mankind  effected.  Hence  it  is  that  Christian 
philanthropists,  clearly  comprehending  the  truth 
on  this  point,  have  labored,  unremittingly,  from 
the  days  of  John  Knox,  the  Scotch  Reformer, 
to  the  present  moment,  to  promote  education 
among  the  people,  and  thus  prepare  them  for 
the  enjoyment  of  civil  liberty.  Every  consid- 
eration, leading  Christian  men  to  labor  to  super- 
sede Despotism  by  Republicanism,  demands, 
with  equal  force,  that  Slavery  shall  be  super- 
seded by  Freedom.  There  is  an  advantage 
gained  it  is  thought,  in  ranking  Slavery  and 
Despotism  as  identical.  It  links  the  fate  of  the 
one  with  that  of  the  other.  None  but  fanatics, 
however,  will  attempt  to  reap  before  they  sow. 
Xone  who  comprehend  the  causes  of  the  failure 
of  republicanism  in  France,  and  of  emancipa- 
tion in  Hayti  and  Jamaica,  will  desire  to  wit- 
ness a  repetition  of  the  ti'agedies  there  enacted. 
The  benefits  repaid  not  the  treasure  and  the 


276  COTTON    IS     KING. 

blood  they  cost.  But  these  tragedies  have 
taught  a  lesson  easily  comprehended.  Moral 
elevation  must  precede  the  enjoyment  of  civil 
privileges.  The  advance  in  the  former,  must 
be  the  measure  by  which  to  regulate  the  grant 
of  the  latter ;  otherwise  the  safety  of  society  is 
endangered.  Upon  these  principles  most  of 
the  States  have  acted,  in  denying  to  the  free 
colored  people  an  equality  of  political  rights  ; 
and  before  any  change  of  policy  takes  place  in 
these  States,  there  must  be  an  elevation  of  the 
intellectual  and  moral  condition  of  that  people. 
Efforts  for  their  education,  therefore,  should 
supersede  the  struggles  for  their  political  en- 
franchisement, by  those  who  profess  to  believe 
that  they  can  be  elevated  among  the  whites. 

The  concessions  everywhere  made,  by  the 
Abolitionists,  as  to  the  intellectual  and  moral 
debasement  of  the  great  majority  of  the  free 
colored  people,  and  the  necessity  of  a  radical 
reform  among  them,  must  make  an  impression 
on  the  public  mind.  Ignorant  and  degraded 
men,  in  the  possession  of  political  rights,  are  a 
dangerous  element  in  free  governments.     It  is 


COTTON    IS     KING.  277 

a  conviction  of  this  truth,  that  now  agitates 
the  public  mind,  on  the  question  of  limiting 
the  political  privileges  of  foreigners,  who  may 
hereafter  ask  the  rights  of  citizenship;  and 
begets  the  hostility,  among  Americans,  to 
excluding  the  Bible  from  Common  Schools. 

But  why  so  much  zeal,  it  is  asked,  for  the 
Bible  in  Common  Schools  ?  In  the  language 
of  another,  we,  in  turn,  would  ask  : 

''How  comes  it  that  that  little  volume, 
composed  by  humble  men  in  a  rude  age,  when 
art  and  science  were  but  in  their  childhood, 
has  exerted  more  influence  on  the  human  mind 
and  on  the  social  system,  than  all  the  other 
books  put  together  ?  Whence  comes  it  that  this 
book  has  achieved  such  marvelous  changes  in 
the  opinions  of  mankind — has  banished  idol 
worship — has  abolished  infanticide — has  put 
down  polygamy  and  divorce — exalted  the  con- 
dition of  woman — ^raised  the  standard  of  pub- 
lic morality — created  for  families  that  blessed 
thing,  a  Christian  home — and  produced  its 
other  triumphs  by  causing  benevolent  institu- 
tions, open  and  expansive,  to  spring  up  as  with 


278  COTTON    IS     KING. 

the  wand  of  enchantment?  "What  sort  of  a 
book  is  this,  that  even  the  winds  and  waves  of 
human  passion  obey  it?  What  other  engine 
of  social  improvement  has  operated  so  long, 
and  yet  lost  none  of  its  virtues  ?  Since  it  ap- 
peared, many  boasted  plans  of  amelioration 
have  been  tried  and  failed,  many  codes  of 
jurisprudence  have  arisen,  and  run  their  course, 
and  expired.  Empire  after  empire  has  been 
launched  upon  the  tide  of  time,  and  gone  down, 
leaving  no  trace  upon  the  waters.  But  this 
book  is  still  going  about  doing  good,  leaving 
with  society  its  holy  principles — cheering  the 
sorrowful  with  its  consolation — strengthening 
the  tempted — encouraging  the  patient — calm- 
ing the  troubled  spirit — and  smoothing  the 
pillow  of  death.  Can  such  a  book  be  the  off- 
spring of  human  genius  ?  Does  not  the  vast- 
ness  of  its  effects  demonstrate  the  excellency 
of  the  power  to  be  of  God  ?" 

The  feeling  of  every  true  American,  on 
this  question,  may  be  thus  expressed:  "Eather 
than  have  my  offspring  deprived  of  free  access 
to  the  fountain  of  all  true  morality — rather 


COTTON    IS     KING.  279 

than  see  the  chiklren  of  my  country  deprived  of 
the  Bible — I  would  sacrifice  all  to  prevent  such 
a  calamity.  With  the  banishment  of  the  Bible 
from  common  schools,  farewell  to  republican- 
ism; farewell  to  morality ;  farewell  to  religion!" 

It  is  matter  of  rejoicing,  to  all  who  hold 
these  sentiments,  that  the  work  of  insti'uction, 
amoDg  the  slaves,  under  the  supervision  of 
several  of  the  largest  religious  denominations 
in  the  countiy,  is  progressing,  slowly,  it  may 
be,  but  successfully.  The  Bible  is  among  the 
slaves  as  well  as  the  masters.  The  presence 
of  the  missionary,  engaged  in  his  labor  of  love, 
in  the  midst  of  the  slave  population,  is  an 
ample  demonstration,  that  the  master  recog- 
nizes his  slave  as  an  immortal  being,  with  a 
soul  to  be  saved  or  lost.  With  this  work  of 
instruction,  increased  and  perpetuated,  the 
slave  will  one  day,  reach  that  point  of  moral 
elevation,  when  his  bondage  may  be  safely 
superseded  by  freedom. 

But  what  of  the  Free  Colored  People? 
Their  condition  and  prospects  are  before  the 
reader.     Their  agency  in  checking  emancipa- 


280  COTTON    IS     KING. 

tion,  when  it  was  in  successful  progress,  has 
become  history.  Their  submission,  voluntarily, 
to  become  "hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of 
water,"  is  a  melancholy  fact,  visible  to  all. 
Whoever  projects  a  practicable  scheme  of 
abolition,  that  will  again  offer  inducements  to 
general  emancipation,  and  hasten  the  redemp- 
tion of  the  colored  race,  must  include  in  his 
measures,  as  the  first  and  radical  principle,  the 
elevation  of  those  already  free !  Accomplish 
this,  and  more  than  half  the  work  is  completed. 
The  theater  for  such  an  achievement  is  not  the 
United  States.  It  is  Africa — Liberia.  Utopia 
is  not  the  field — ^it  must  be  abandoned.  Chris- 
tian men  at  the  South,  now  hesitate  to  emanci- 
pate their  slaves,  and  cast  them,  helpless,  upon 
the  frigid  charities  of  the  North!  But  let 
Africa  be  once  redeemed,  let  civilization  and 
Christianity  spread  over  a  few  millions  of  its 
population,  and  the  moral  effect  would  be  irre- 
sistible. Every  rational  objection  to  emancipa- 
tion would  be  at  an  end.  Every  Christian  mas- 
ter, as  his  slaves  attained  sufficient  moral  ele- 
vation, would  say  to  them,  "Brothers,  go  free!" 


APPENDIX. 


282 


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284   APPENDIX — TABLE  I — Continued. 


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286      APPENDIX — TABLE  I — CouUnued, 


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STATISTICS 


287 


.23 


ill  i 

.t~«^        CO<B 

ons'  imported 
to  Knf^land, 
Continent, 
to  (ireafc  liti 
tt)'.t,874  His. 

Continent, 
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288 


APPENDIX. 


K  O 

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K  Q 

to  ;?; 


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O  t« 

<:  c 

Pi  « 

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Vi 

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lO 

45  a 

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o^ 

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CO  CO  lO  J^  lO  GO  iO 

cnT 

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CM  O  lO  Oi  T— 1  O  O 

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STATISTICS. 


289 


■^  CO  O  O  '^H  O^ 
cc  ^  c:  o  oC'  ^ 
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tc 

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c:  CO   lo  <:o  oo 

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<:o  GO  ,  Ci  T— i  iO 

CM 

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cTr-T' 

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o 


290 


APPENDIX. 


a    PS 


5  g 

a  ;z; 

2  2 

a  r- 

2  "^ 

:5  o 


03  a 

s  ^ 

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S  H  ^2; 

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a  ^ 

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EC  H)  S 

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«  !2;  o 

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2  M  « 

o 


CO  Ci  o 

1— 1  r-t  'M 

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cq  T^  CO 

QC  O  ^ 

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C?^  O  CO 

rH  coir- 

C^  Cn^  GO 

t-'i-H  CO 

CO  oo  xo 

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cq  CO  ^ 

GO  OO  cq 

0_CO^  rH 

^^"^..^ 

CO^Tt<  CO 

oTco^co' 

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1—1          tH 

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CO         CO 

tH          rH 

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STATISTICS 


291 


o 

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g  S 

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CcihhCG 

292     APPENDIX — TABLE  IV — Continued. 


CC  Cirt         C  i-H 


'^s*  m  00      cc  "^ 


crs  c<(  00       o  io 

O  Oi  O         irt  Tf 


to  t^ 

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■<*  CN  G^        to  (M 


CO  30 


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r-  CO 

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■^  ITS  t-         CO  t^ 

Tt  — I  OJ         CI  GO 

t^       ^  I— I 


CO  o  o      ci  m 

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ty  «  CO        w 


2  o 

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OSS 

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vw    w    TO 


f^^M 


STATISTICS. 


293 


CJO     • 

fOOOO 

CO  CO  00 
CJ  C  CD 

CO  CS  00 

00  00  00 

0  (Nt*< 

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«r)  !>•    . 

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COQOCT 

CD  0  ^ 

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co«ooo 

c^    •  G^^ 

t-       •  CO 

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05^      •  05^ 

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oo"     cf 

;5r^ar 

^^     cf 

t^'^00-- 

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I— 1         * 

t-          C5 

10      t- 

c?      00 

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c* 

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CO 

in  Tt<  C^ 

cr.  t-  uo 

00  ct  t- 

(?<  0?  t^ 

CJ  CO  t-: 

CD  ^  00 

CO  t^-"* 

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r-i  CD  O 

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10  0  00 

coco  ,-1 

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10  0  -^ 

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CD 


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03 


294     APPENDIX — TABLE  IV — Coiitiiiued. 


(??  C^Oi 

OOJQO 

irt  o  -?»< 

00  f^c? 

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en 

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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

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This  book  Is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


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m: 


i    NOV  021982 

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"M» 


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